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Town Talk: Museum of Vancouver's Haida Now exhibition fêted

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HAIDA’S TOUCH: The Museum of Vancouver’s new CEO, Mauro Vescera, got his 100-kilowatt smile to Kitsilano Point just in time to open the Haida Now exhibition that will run to June 15. Guest curated by Kwiaahwah Jones with the MOV’s Viviane Gosselin, the 450-work exhibition opened with singing and dignified conduct that pleased Haida leader and Officer of the Order of Canada Miles Richardson. Thanking organizers for the “proper ceremony,” he said: “Ceremony and spirituality is about we’re all the same.” Haida artists present, some of whom will interact with the exhibition’s visitors, included Corey Bulpitt. He and his Gitxsan wife, Cheyenne Gwa’muuk, brought six-week-old Skil tuu whose Warrior In Training T-shirt hinted at other than ceremonial and spiritual times ahead.

Museum of Vancouver CEO Mauro Vescera appreciated Miles Richardson's thanks for the Haida Now opening's 'proper ceremony.'

Museum of Vancouver CEO Mauro Vescera appreciated Miles Richardson’s thanks for the Haida Now opening’s ‘proper ceremony.’

GUNN CONTROLLED: The president of the University of B.C., Santa Ono, and the dean of medicine, Dermot Kelleher, officially opened the Point Grey campus’s 13,480-square-foot Chan Gunn Pavilion that was kick-started by Dr. Chan Gunn’s $5 million donation. It houses numerous physical-activity and exercise-medicine facilities, kinesiology and physiology labs, and the previously established Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Clinic. Its Gunn IMS wing researches and treats chronic and neuropathic pain using the acupuncture-related intramuscular stimulation system Gunn developed. Also at the ceremony was Darlene Poole who, with her and late husband Jack’s foundation, funded the pavilion’s rehabilitation and research gym to prevent, treat and manage cancer and other medical conditions.

Dr. Chan Gunn attended the opening a UBC-campus sports-medicine pavilion in his name with UBC president Santa Ono present.

Dr. Chan Gunn attended the opening a UBC-campus sports-medicine pavilion in his name with UBC president Santa Ono present.

Of his IMS method, Gunn said: “In the old days, treatment with a needle, people thought you were crazy.” Then, to laughter: “They still think you’re crazy.” Still, when wife Peggy’s lungs were filling with fluid a decade ago, “Nothing helped. The books said most people died anyway. When the fluid reaches the top, goodbye.” So Gunn began treating her using his own researches,  “and next day, half the fluid had gone.” Cheerful and well, Peggy accompanied her husband to the pavilion’s opening.

After 14 years, Norman Armour is stepping away from the PuSh Festival.

UP PARRYSCOPE: Good for PuSh Festival founder Norman Armour who will leave in April after 14 years of doing it right.

Students Kester Yeung and Elise Koshman prepared and served instructor Karen Gin's prawn-and-pork dumplings at VCC's Flourish gala.

Students Kester Yeung and Elise Koshman prepared and served instructor Karen Gin’s prawn-and-pork dumplings at VCC’s Flourish gala.

Vancouver Community College Foundation director Nancy Nesbitt made and wore her entry in the Flourish gala's fashion-design contest.

Vancouver Community College Foundation director Nancy Nesbitt made and wore her entry in the Flourish gala’s fashion-design contest.

FULL FLOURISH: Encouraged by 2017’s debut Flourish gala and outstanding alumni awards ceremony, Vancouver Community College Foundation had 29 faculty and alumni chefs raise more dough at the recent second running. The resultant $30,000 will fund awards to female student leaders. Culinary students joined the pros to serve gala-goers. Meanwhile, faculty jazzers Bernie Arai, Daryl Jahnke, Sharon Minemoto and Laurence Mollerup backed singer-alumnus Tom Arntzen to keep the joint jumping. Grad-turned-foundation director Nancy Nesbitt vied with 13 others in a Flourish-inspired fashion-design contest, then made and wore her entry. Setting an example that similar-event speakers sadly may not follow, VCC  president Peter Nunoda needed a bare minute at the microphone to welcome guests and praise organizers. Good show all around.

Magician Matt Johnson entertained restaurateur-friend David Hawksworth's guests at a reception promoting Hawksworth Catering.

Magician Matt Johnson entertained restaurateur-friend David Hawksworth’s guests at a reception promoting Hawksworth Catering.

ABRACADABRA Having built a chow-based empire here, VCC grad David Hawksworth operates a self-named restaurant in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, the adjacent Bel Café (named for wife Annabel), the Hastings-off-Burrard Nightingale restaurant, and Hawksworth Catering on Granville Island. He’s also readying a spring-releasing coffee-table book ghost written by former National Post restaurant reviewer Jacob Richler. At a reception promoting his catering business, Hawksworth had mind-reading magician-friend Matt Johnson (urbandeception.com) boggle guests with sleight-of-hand tricks and by making his many tattoos vanish. Just kidding, folks. However, wife Dana, who heads sales programs head at Abbotsford’s Phantom Screens firm, can make powered window screens disappear like magic.

With partner Soo Min Park, Paul Weston showed Life Without Limits attendees that those with cerebral palsy can launch business careers.

With partner Soo Min Park, Paul Weston showed Life Without Limits attendees that those with cerebral palsy can launch business careers.

NO LIMITS: At its recent fourth annual Life Without Limits gala in the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, the Cerebral Palsy Association of B.C. awarded bursaries to post-secondary students. Knowing the social stigma that neurologically disabled patients can face, executive director Feri Dehdar hoped education “will bring employment, a career, social connections and the dream of living a life without limits.” That worked for right-arm-and-leg-afflicted Paul Weston, 26, whose BFA degree and year at UBC’s Sauder School of Business led to founding the film-video-photo firm Anxious Pineapple. In her own BFA grad-year, Soo Min Park, Weston’s business and romantic partner, won a filmmaking contest with her seven-minute My Mom is An Alien. Parents of cerebral palsy patients doubtless look forward to a time when no one says that about their children.

It was 2001 when singing star and Juno Awards host Michael Bublé had soon-to-die deejay Jack Cullen urge him to sing more ballads.

It was 2001 when singing star and Juno Awards host Michael Bublé had soon-to-die deejay Jack Cullen urge him to sing more ballads.

SOUND ADVICE: After hosting the Juno Awards here Sunday, Michael Bublé may relax in the Burnaby home that city architect and wood-tower proselytizer Michael Green designed. Bublé was still negotiating fame’s lower rungs in 2001 when he sang in West Broadway’s Carnegie’s restaurant-lounge. With him then was sometime mentor Jack Cullen, the soon-to-die former Owl Prowl disc jockey, whose popular-music sense was acute. After Bublé belted out three upbeat songs in a row, he growled: “Sing a ballad, Michael. A ballad.” It’s a pity Cullen couldn’t have heard his personal sentiments about Bublé echoed in the latter’s recent ballad, I Believe in You.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: All those years of Marxism’s anti-imperialism rhetoric and the world’s largest Communist nation gets a new emperor.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456


Town Talk: Juno participants celebrated beforehand

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ROCK ON: Among them, Bruce Allen’s firm Bruce Allen Talent, Sam Feldman’s The Feldman Agency and his and Steve Macklam’s Feldman Macklam Management handle many of Canada’s top musicbiz performers. Unsurprisingly, their joint Juno Awards party drew many such artists to Sportsbar LIVE! At Rogers Arena. Seeing Allen clients Bryan Adams and Michael Bublé together there, some likely remembered them and BTO leader Randy Bachman singing Happy Birthday at Allen’s 60th in 2005. That’s when Feldman summed up his and legendarily tough Allen’s then-three-decade business relationship with: “Having been his partner and his friend for this long, believe me, you don’t want to be his enemy.”

Juno party host and music biz agent Sam Feldman referred to himself and Canadian country singer Corb Lund as "a coupla cowboys.

Juno party host and music biz agent Sam Feldman referred to himself and Canadian country singer Corb Lund as “a coupla cowboys.

CTV News anchor Tamara Taggart accompanied husband Dave Genn of the 54:40 band that recently released the Keep on Walking album.

CTV News anchor Tamara Taggart accompanied husband Dave Genn of the 54:40 band that recently released the Keep on Walking album.

At the same celebration, veteran deejay Red Robinson said of Allen and Feldman: “These guys should get the Order of Canada. Look at the money they’ve brought into Canada — millions.”

Juno party host and music biz agent Sam Feldman referred to himself and Canadian country singer Corb Lund as "a coupla cowboys.

Juno party host and music biz agent Sam Feldman referred to himself and Canadian country singer Corb Lund as “a coupla cowboys.

As for piling up billions, Rogers Arena and Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini looked in with daughter Alana. Less happily, he has an ongoing spat with potential Beverly Hills neighbours regarding his extra-large mansion proposal. Maybe he’ll heed the new 15th album by Vancouver’s 54:40 band, whose guitarist-vocalist Dave Genn attended with wife and CTV News anchor, Tamara Taggart. It’s title: Keep On Walking.

Rogers Arena-Vancouver Canucks principal Francesco Aquilini and daughter Alana attended the Allen-Feldman-Macklam Juno party.

Rogers Arena-Vancouver Canucks principal Francesco Aquilini and daughter Alana attended the Allen-Feldman-Macklam Juno party.

Talent manager Bruce Allen and client Michael Bublé welcomed and mixed with guests at a party preceding the Juno Awards event here.

Talent manager Bruce Allen and client Michael Bublé welcomed and mixed with guests at a party preceding the Juno Awards event here.

ROOM TO GROW: “I still love West Van,” said Michael Bublé who hasn’t yet left there for the new Burnaby home reported here last week. Still, he and wife Luisana Lopilato have a third child due in July, of which he knows the gender but isn’t saying. “Then a fourth (child) after that, maybe six,” Bublé said. “I could start a religion.” More likely, he’ll start architect Michael Green working on a nursery wing for that as-yet-unoccupied Burnaby home.

Superyacht designer Ron Holland had marine artist John Horton fête him on the launch of his photo-and-yarn-filled All The Oceans book.

Superyacht designer Ron Holland had marine artist John Horton fête him on the launch of his photo-and-yarn-filled All The Oceans book.

IN THE SWIM: Super-yacht designer Ron Holland launched his second book, All The Oceans: Designing by the Seat of My Pants, at Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and Vancouver Maritime Museum. Vancouver resident Holland said he “didn’t succeed at school, so I became a boat-building apprentice at age 16.” His first design, the 24-foot sloop Eygthene, became 1973’s world-champion quarter tonner. Subsequent royal, rock-star and tycoon clients included British prime minister Ted Heath “who introduced me to his society friends as ‘my Irish yacht designer’ while the IRA were bombing the shit out of London.” As race-boat clients “got older, richer and fatter, and had wives and girlfriends go with them,” his designs grew and became more luxurious. Regarding the Texan who bought a Holland 260-footer, then asked if it could be made bigger, “My answer is always Yes,” Holland said.

His salty yarns at RVYC included one of a sloop without lifelines denied entry in a transatlantic race. Its three owners went anyway, whereupon the Norwegian one fell overboard with no life-jacket. After he’d trod water overnight, a yacht carrying parents and two children “ran over him.” Fished out, he joined a Congolese who had been thrown overboard from a ship where he’d stowed away. Holland later met the survivor, now a safety inspector with a Norwegian maritime organization.

Loving Spoonful executive director Lisa Martella joined Tavola restaurant host Susan Cameron during the Dine Out For Life fundraiser.

Loving Spoonful executive director Lisa Martella joined Tavola restaurant host Susan Cameron during the Dine Out For Life fundraiser.

MORE LOVE: Loving Spoonful’s 10-year executive director, Lisa Martella, had more than 50 potential dinner invitations recently, and kept several. That was when the Dining Out For Life program had city restaurants raise a possible $100,000 for the 1989-founded organization that serves 100,000 free meals yearly to those with HIV/AIDS. With changing menus, too, as clients live longer, develop coexisting ailments and have their dietary needs evolve.  Not so Martella and spouse Paul’s cats, Leroy, Jaxie and Gracie, “who always want chicken, preferably grilled,” she said.

Music Heals executive director Chris Brandt fronted the Juno weekend's public party aided by community outreach specialist Zoe Peled.

Music Heals executive director Chris Brandt fronted the Juno weekend’s public party aided by community outreach specialist Zoe Peled.

Neesha Hothi and Rob Calder were the Juno host committee's marketing-and-communications and programming leads respectively.

Neesha Hothi and Rob Calder were the Juno host committee’s marketing-and-communications and programming leads respectively.

COME TO HEAL: Folk filled the Vancouver Art Gallery’s tented Georgia Street forecourt recently for a free concert benefiting Music Heals. The organization, which provides music-therapy programs to hospitals, palliative-care centres and related facilities, was fronted there by executive director Chris Brandt and outreach specialist Zoe Peled. Juno host committee co-chairs Nick Blasko and Catherine Runnals attended, the former seeing a performance by his Amelia Artists client-duo, Funk Hunters. Runnals, who is president of city-based international-events producer Brandlive, accompanied her husband and business partner, Paul Runnals.

Roxy Cabaret staff ringed founder and Granville Entertainment Group president Blaine Culling during a 30th anniversary party there.

Roxy Cabaret staff ringed founder and Granville Entertainment Group president Blaine Culling during a 30th anniversary party there.

STILL DANCING: Pouring rain kept the Roxy cabaret’s 1973 Lincoln convertible from parking outside during 30th anniversary celebrations there. But beverages cascaded inside as the drink-and-dance joint took a one-night break from attracting downtown Granville Street’s younger patrons. As for its operators, third-decade chief operational officer Bill Degrazio said of his Granville Entertainment Group partners, president Blaine Culling and CFO Ron Orr: “I do all the work for the old guys who are retired.” Not entirely, of course, although Culling’s club-owning era reaches back to the 1960s and Davie Street’s psychedelic Retinal Circus, now Celebrities.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Before turning to Peace River power generation, B.C. considered a 261-metre-high dam on the Fraser River north of Lillooet and a thermal plant exploiting the world’s largest deposit of the world’s dirtiest coal under Upper Hat Creek Valley.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Emily Carr U gets a sculpture of the eponymous artist

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PICTURE PERFECT: At Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s still-new campus this week,  Canaccord Genuity Group founder Peter Brown donated E.J. Hughes’s 1948 painting, Coastal Boats Near Sidney, B.C. Reportedly now worth $1.8 million, the 122-by-92-cm work came from Brown and wife Joanne’s foundation. So did a Joe Fafard sculpture of another late B.C. artist, Emily Carr, her pet monkey Woo and a horse and dog. It stands temporarily beside the office of the soon-to-retire varsity president, Ron Burnett.

Retiring president Ron Burnett welcomed the Peter and Joanne Brown Foundation's artworks and cash donations to Emily Carr University.

Retiring president Ron Burnett welcomed the Peter and Joanne Brown Foundation’s artworks and cash donations to Emily Carr University.

 

From his and wife Joanne's foundation, Peter Brown donated an E.J. Hughes' painting to Emily Carr University of Art + Design's collection.

From his and wife Joanne’s foundation, Peter Brown donated an E.J. Hughes’ painting to Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s collection.

Brown himself stood fairly comfortably following a six-vertebrae operation by local spine surgeon Marcel Dvorak. With the family’s Belmont Avenue home sold for a reported $31.1 million and its artworks disbursing, Brown confided to major collector-philanthropist Michael Audain that surrendering the Hughes painting was “probably the only one that gave me collector’s remorse.” At least it survived. On Christmas Day, 1988, fire razed late neighbour Edgar Kaiser Jr.’s house and destroyed his art collection, although Brown helped push Kaiser’s Lamborghini to safety.

After 16 years downtown, on South Granville and The Flats, art gallerist Jennifer Winsor will relinquish premises and operate globally.

After 16 years downtown, on South Granville and The Flats, art gallerist Jennifer Winsor will relinquish premises and operate globally.

BRANCHING OUT: Emily Carr University’s move to the east-of-Main “Flats” had several private art galleries, including Jennifer Winsor’s, follow suit. Now, after 16 bricks-and-mortar years, she’ll close its doors “and do event shows — I hate the term pop-up — in Toronto and L.A., and Taiwan and Beijing next year.” London, Vancouver and other locales may entail collaborations with other galleries. Such an enterprise needs contracted artists, of course, not to mention a 16-year client roster.

OUR MEN IN HAVANA: After surveying Cuba’s capital city recently, Steve Thorp and Reuben Major are renovating Commercial Drive’s same-name landmark restaurant for a possible mid-month reopening. The two are partners with others in the Dunlevy-at-Alexander Settlement Building that incorporates Belgard Kitchen, Fresh Tap Winery and Postmark Brewing. The 107-seat Havana is that multi-unit concern’s first venue outside Railtown. Two more are being negotiated and a further two envisaged. Havana’s $500,000 revamp adds Cuban colours and subtracts some internal walls. But the 60-theatre will remain, as will a wall signed by hundreds of patrons, many of whom pleaded for its survival. Perhaps the joint’s future customers will include Corinne Lea, who co-founded Havana in 1996 and is currently campaigning to save West Broadway-off-Commercial’s Rio Theatre from extinction.

Nelson-raised Aline Daigle and Anna Katarina are readying for the launch of their Rumour Mill ensemble's 10-song Daylight's Free album.

Nelson-raised Aline Daigle and Anna Katarina are readying for the launch of their Rumour Mill ensemble’s 10-song Daylight’s Free album.

THE NELSON TOUCH: For Maritime Museum visitors, that term would signify the sailing-era British admiral’s tactic of dividing and conquering an enemy fleet. Recently, though, it entailed Nelson, B.C.-raised Aline Daigle and Anna Katarina entertaining attendees at the Kits Point museum. At least, Daigle’s violin may have been made in 1805, when the one-eyed, one-armed admiral was killed while winning the Battle of Trafalgar. Stage-named Rumour Mill, Daigle and Katarina played the title song and others from their soon-releasing 10-song Daylight’s Free album. They and their band should reprise them at The Penny (three blocks south of Havana) April 28.

Recently deceased Geoffrey Lau enlivened a charity auction by buying seven celebrity-owned watches and draping them in wife Sandra's arm.

Recently deceased Geoffrey Lau enlivened a charity auction by buying seven celebrity-owned watches and draping them in wife Sandra’s arm.

RIP: Ever-cheerful architect-entrepreneur Geoffrey Lau’s recent death reminded some of a characteristic gesture. When three children’s charities benefited from an auction of celebrity-donated watches — from Mel Gibson, Barbra Streisand and suchlike — the philanthropic Lau bought enough to cover wife and Chinese opera company founder Sandra from wrist to elbow.

New Car Dealers Assoc. of B.C. president-CEO Blair Qualey out-glittered car show vehicles in a jacket that fetched $800 at charity-auction.

New Car Dealers Assoc. of B.C. president-CEO Blair Qualey out-glittered car show vehicles in a jacket that fetched $800 at charity-auction.

SPARKLE TIME: “Auto show boasts fast and flashy rides,” The Vancouver Sun headlined an article by New Car Dealers Association of B.C. president-CEO Blair Qualey. Flashier still, Qualey’s visible-from-space sequined jacket auctioned for $800 during a show-opening gala that benefited Special Olympics B.C. and the association’s foundation.

Here with his treasured 1928 Chevrolet, Moray Keith had his downtown Dueck dealership awarded twice for clean-energy-vehicle sales.

Here with his treasured 1928 Chevrolet, Moray Keith had his downtown Dueck dealership awarded twice for clean-energy-vehicle sales.

The event’s nine dealership awards for clean-energy-vehicle sales included two for Dueck Downtown. Arm-twisting wasn’t required, though, as Dueck Auto Group owner Moray Keith said: “We sell every (battery powered) Chevrolet Bolt we can get our hands on.”

Cowichan Valley winery owners Loretta Zanatta and spouse Jim Moody poured with other off-the-mainland producers at Edible Canada.

Cowichan Valley winery owners Loretta Zanatta and spouse Jim Moody poured with other off-the-mainland producers at Edible Canada.

OVER THE WATER: Vancouver Island, not the Okanagan, was B.C. commercial winemaking’s birthplace when Herb Anscomb urged Saanich loganberry farmers to ferment 1921’s surplus crops. As Conservative party leader for a period during the 1941—1952 coalition government, Anscomb introduced something harder to swallow: a three per cent provincial sales tax. By the 1980s, genuine viticulture was practised by producers like Blue Grouse, Rathjen Cellars and Vigneti Zanatta. Recently, 17 Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands wine, cider, mead and gin producers — from Averill Creek to Zanatta — presented their wares at Granville Island’s Edible Canada restaurant. Still, despite Vancouver Island’s Green voters sustaining a second B.C. coalition government, no one there replicates Portugal’s vinho verde or  “green wine.” Mike Rathjen may do so if test rows of appropriate Alvarino grapes successfully ripen at his 10-hectare Saanich vineyard. Closest to vinho verde, meanwhile, are the 2,000-a-year cases of Damasco that Jim Moody and wife Loretta Zanatta produce at Cowichan Valley’s Vigneti Zanatta, albeit from Muscat and Ortega grapes with hints of  Auxerrois and Madeleine Sylvaner.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: If only comic-opera geniuses Gilbert and Sullivan had survived to recreate their opportunistic but militarily naive “very model of a modern major-general” as one who would propose withdrawing troops from fighting war-criminal terrorists and have them repel neighbour-nation civilians.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Lawyer-rockers give Covenant House a boost

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LEGAL AID: The Covenant House shelter-and-support organization for homeless and at-risk youth was assisted by a heavy — and loud — legal team recently. That was at the Winsor Gallery where the five-lawyer Rising Down rock band played a benefit concert that paid tribute to the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie. Some audience members were veterans of Covenant House’s annual Sleep Out event that raised $239,159 in February. Rising Down’s members, all from different firms, will participate in the 17th annual Battle of the Bar Bands at the Commodore Ballroom on June 8. The concert will benefit the Canadian Bar Association (B.C.) Benevolent Society of which the Rising Down lead singer and Richards Buell Sutton partner, David Hay, is president.

Teresa Alfeld attended a launch for the DOXA Documentary Film Festival which her film on late politician Harry Rankin will open May 3.

Teresa Alfeld attended a launch for the DOXA Documentary Film Festival which her film on late politician Harry Rankin will open May 3.

ANOTHER HARRY: Organizers and filmmakers launched the 17th annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival recently with a reception at Hamilton Street’s The Post at 750. The May 3-13 festival will screen 86 productions, beginning with city-based Teresa Alfeld’s The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical. Its subject, Teresa Alfeld’s The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, was a social activist and two-decade Vancouver city councillor who lost a 1986 mayoral bid to Gordon Campbell. Alfeld’s project entailed categorizing “eleven Rubbermaid containers filled with stuff … and 25 pizza boxes with 33 completely disorganized 16-mm film reels.” She got it done, though.

Templeton Secondary drama teacher Jim Crescenzo will retire after coaching four decades of students to film, stage and even boxing careers.

Templeton Secondary drama teacher Jim Crescenzo will retire after coaching four decades of students to film, stage and even boxing careers.

UOMO D’ONORE: Alfeld graduated from Templeton Secondary where four-decade drama teacher Jim Crescenzo will retire this year. “If it weren’t for him, I would never have got into film,” Alfeld said. “He had the ability to make a teenager feel important regardless of her background.” A Templeton grad himself who helped raise $3 million for arts programs there, Crescenzo received a Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. The local Confratellanza Italo-Canadese named him Italian Canadian of the Year. Still, he always focused on students like those leaving to compete in 1994’s B.C. Festival of the Arts. “For these kids,” he said then, “crossing Hastings Street is a holiday. So going to Campbell River is like a world tour.” Many of the youngsters Crescenzo mentored would do just that.

Fresh from being arrested with other protesters, director Zack Embree screened his Directly Affected: Pipeline Under Pressure at the Cultch.

Fresh from being arrested with other protesters, director Zack Embree screened his Directly Affected: Pipeline Under Pressure at the Cultch.

PIPING UP: Days after being arrested with other protesters at Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain site, city filmmaker Zack Embree screened his and co-director Devyn Brugge’s Directly Affected: Pipeline Under Pressure. The venue was the Cultch, where the five-years-in-the-making, 75-minute documentary attracted some First Nations dignitaries and pipeline-shy politicians. Possibly given the event’s L.A. public-relations agent, several local screen actors were interviewed, photographed and filmed while negotiating a festival-style red carpet. Hours earlier, Kinder Morgan announced May 31 as decision day for continuing its $7.4-billion project, thus putting directly affected Ottawa under inescapable pressure and ensuring that this nationally consequential matter is no movie any more.

Cultch volunteer Curtis Ellis's sleight of hand makes aces and jokers disappear although not the Jack of Spades tattooed on his forearm.

Cultch volunteer Curtis Ellis’s sleight of hand makes aces and jokers disappear although not the Jack of Spades tattooed on his forearm.

PICK A CARD: Paralleling the Cultch audience’s pipeline sentiments, volunteer greeter Curtis Ellis’s sleight-of-hand made a card pack’s knaves, jokers and even aces disappear. By day, he manages realty projects where conjuring skill can come in handy, too.

Chris Pagani will drive a $4.5-million Pagani Huayra at a quarter of its 383 km/h top speed in the Hublot Diamond Rally to Whistler on May 6.

Chris Pagani will drive a $4.5-million Pagani Huayra at a quarter of its 383 km/h top speed in the Hublot Diamond Rally to Whistler on May 6.

SOFT PEDAL: Supercar owners should use up plenty of Alberta-derived gasoline driving their Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens and suchlike in the Vancouver-Whistler Hublot Diamond Rally on May 5. Roadside viewers may appraise passing contestants’ chances for the rally’s best livery/decal prizes, while radar-toting coppers monitor the up-to-$4.5-million dreamboats regarding the 100-km/h limit. Given that most could more than triple that speed, the event may be akin to watching thoroughbreds trot or at best canter around Hastings Racecourse.

Capture Photography Festival founder-head Kim Spencer-Nairn kicked off the fifth annual running at the Contemporary Art Gallery.

Capture Photography Festival founder-head Kim Spencer-Nairn kicked off the fifth annual running at the Contemporary Art Gallery.

With major projects of their own pending, Lincoln Clarkes and Dina Goldstein took in the Capture Photography Festival’s opening.

With major projects of their own pending, Lincoln Clarkes and Dina Goldstein took in the Capture Photography Festival’s opening.

Dina Goldstein's Modern Girls and Snapshots from the Garden of Eden series will be followed by U.S presidents hearing the 10 Commandments.

Dina Goldstein’s Modern Girls and Snapshots from the Garden of Eden series will be followed by U.S presidents hearing the 10 Commandments.

ON THE WALL: Founded by Kim Spencer-Nairn and since-disengaged Julie Lee, the fifth annual Capture Photography Festival launched at the Contemporary Art Gallery recently. It will run at some 50 galleries to April 30.

TWO WHO SHOULD: Photo-conceptual artists like Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham and Ian Wallace have given Vancouver and themselves global reputations. Then there’s Dina Goldstein, whose staged photo series — Gods of Suburbia, Fallen Princesses, Modern Girls, Snapshots From the Garden of Eden, etc. — have received international plaudits but still kept her off the pantheon. Unlike Wall’s productions, might they be too staged? Maybe her 2018-launching The Ten Commandments, picturing Donald Trump and earlier U.S. presidents, will do the trick. At the Capture launch, she queried longtime city photographer Lincoln Clarkes who is readying a large-format update of his book Heroines. With 100 more sensitive studies of addicted Downtown Eastside women added, it will release in 2018. Here’s wishing them well.

The former Exposure Gallery's Ian McGuffie and photographic artist Jessica Bushey recounted collaborations at the Capture festival launch.

The former Exposure Gallery’s Ian McGuffie and photographic artist Jessica Bushey recounted collaborations at the Capture festival launch.

TWO WHO DID: Also attending the Capture launch was Ian McGuffie, son of the same-name Canadian motorcycling champ, whose sadly defunct Exposure Gallery exhibited many photographers’ works. He had wall-to-wall hits there with annual Eye of Eros shows. “I’m his date,” chuckled in-from-Helsinki Jessica Bushey who brought invaluable female perspective on erotica to those exhibitions. Her contributions included astoundingly intimate studies of herself, including inside her mouth, while deftly sidestepping pornography or narcissistic cliché.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Who would willingly return to 7.7-cents-a-litre gas or a passport-free border crossing entailing little more than a wave?

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: One Girl Can helps educate hundreds of girls

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ONE WOMAN DID: At the Main-off-Hastings Imperial room, Lotte Davis saw $350,000 reportedly raised for the One Girl Can organization she founded. That will send 85 African girls to university and 95 to high school, said Davis who, with husband John, also founded the AG Hair concern. OGC currently funds 130 full university scholarships, is aiming for 450, and has renovated or erected 98 school buildings since 2008, she said. “There’s no secret to success. What is missing is the opportunity. Just getting into university isn’t enough, so we teach job-finding-and-holding skills. The only real difference between (Africans and Canadians) is, we were lucky enough to be born here.” And to help those who weren’t, of course.

Olympics ski-cross gold medalist Kelsey Serwa aided One Girl Can founder Lotte Davis raising $350,000 to help educate African youngsters.

Olympics ski-cross gold medalist Kelsey Serwa aided One Girl Can founder Lotte Davis raising $350,000 to help educate African youngsters.

 

 

Diana Zoppa and Susanna Stewart chaired the 13th annual Cabriolet gala staged in Brian Jessel's usually car-jammed BMW showroom.

Diana Zoppa and Susanna Stewart chaired the 13th annual Cabriolet gala staged in Brian Jessel’s usually car-jammed BMW showroom.

CAR-FREE ZONE: The 13th annual Cabriolet gala emptied Brian Jessel’s Boundary-off-Lougheed showroom of BMW cars and filled it with $625-a-ticket guests. The $500,000 it reportedly grossed will benefit Pancreatic Cancer Canada, thereby continuing to commemorate dealer Jessel’s father Bernie. While dining on Four Seasons hotel-catered seared scallops and beef tenderloin, attendees were advised to learn about that most dangerous ailment by ceasing to say, “Oh, it’s just back pain,” and opening assumptionscanbedeadly.ca. Of this year’s markedly more glamorous gala, “We decided to get serious about fundraising,” said Jessel marketing manager Diana Zoppa who co-chaired the ZLC Financial-sponsored running with independent event planner Susanna Stewart.

BMW dealer Brian Jessel dealer prepared to pop Champagne corks at his colour-spotlighted Cabriolet gala benefitting Pancreatic Cancer Canada.

BMW dealer Brian Jessel dealer prepared to pop Champagne corks at his colour-spotlighted Cabriolet gala benefitting Pancreatic Cancer Canada.

CUBA SEE: Cuba-born, Grammy and Juno winner Alex Cuba (real name Alexis Puentes) entertained when the One Night In Havana banquet-concert benefited Variety — The Children’s Charity. Chaired by sometime broadcaster Jill Sinclair, it reportedly raised $147,500 for  juvenile mental health programs, said Variety CEO Cally Wesson. Veteran CKNW producer-broadcaster Shirley Stocker, who is Variety’s chief barker (chair), thanked attendees “so that we may continue to be there when families need us most.”

BOUGHT AND SOLD: As for Commercial Drive’s now-renovating Havana restaurant, its previous 21-year co-owners were Mike Abbott, Ken Conquer and June Bennett. Abbott made an early bundle with Vancouver-based Buy & Sell, a free-advertisements paper that aped his native Britain’s Exchange & Mart and inspired others in North America, if not Cuba.

Vancouver Aquarium president John Nightingale toted a Tightrope Pinot Gris and chef Ned Bell a seaweed brownie at the Wives for Waves gala.

Vancouver Aquarium president John Nightingale toted a Tightrope Pinot Gris and chef Ned Bell a seaweed brownie at the Wives for Waves gala.

FILLER WEED: A salty tang filled the Four Seasons hotel ballroom when the Wine for Waves tasting had 11 restaurants and 25 Naramata Bench wineries benefit Ocean Wise. That sustainable-seafood organization’s ever-inventive executive chef, Ned Bell, offered Vancouver Aquarium president John Nightingale kelp-based seaweed brownies. Had he baked in those confections’ more usual weed, Nightingale might have further craved the early-1960 Austin Healey he seeks. Like hooked fish, those handsome-but-low-slung British sports car can be landed easily, their mufflers being vulnerable to speed bumps and driveway ends. 

Anastasiya Toropova wore New Delhi-based Ambar Pariddi Sahai's Bollywood jewellery designs to kick of Bridal Fashion Week.

Anastasiya Toropova wore New Delhi-based Ambar Pariddi Sahai’s Bollywood jewellery designs to kick of Bridal Fashion Week.

FULLY LOADED: Bridal Fashion Week Canada opened at the Fairmont Waterfront hotel, then moved to Surrey, Calgary, Edmonton and Mississauga. Staged again by Parvesh Kuma and Jai Singh’s Raasleela by Parvesh Jai firm, its domestic and international designers included New Delhi-based Ambar Pariddi Sahai. Known for adorning Bollywood stars, she placed a maang tika head ornament, choker, necklace and bracelet with cascading kaira pearls on local model Anastasiya Toropova. No henna mehndi on her hands, arms, feet and lower legs, though, as that demands up nine hours of real brides’ prep time.

Mission Hill's Anthony von Mandl, seen with Aussie wine biggie Wolf Blass, received Vancouver magazine lifetime-achievement award.

Mission Hill’s Anthony von Mandl, seen with Aussie wine biggie Wolf Blass, received Vancouver magazine lifetime-achievement award.

VON FLEW OVER: Mission Hill Family Estate winery’s Anthony von Mandl has received Vancouver magazine’s lifetime-achievement award. He likely chuckled at its somewhat burlesque description of the 1970s Okanagan when he was an imported-wine agent and, briefly, Vancouver magazine’s wine-and-spirits scribe. He’d have read its many pages about growers facing marketing-board and climate constraints while developing pure-vinifera vines from the U.S. and Europe. In 1977, Osoyoos Vineyard’s Walter Davidson wryly assessed the eight hectares of vinifera he’d nurtured since 1973, and the Osoyoos Indian Band’s Inkameep (now Nk’ Mip Cellars) operation having planted 85,000 vinifera cuttings from Germany’s University of Geisenheim. “If you take the consensus of the valley, you’ll probably find that (Inkameep manager) Ted Brouwer and I aren’t seen as sane men,” Davidson said. Four years later, von Mandl showed that they were. No less sanely, he generated a North America-wide fortune more from liquor-spiked Mike’s Hard Lemonade than his praiseworthy Okanagan wines.

Industrial-noise performer Margaret Chardiet, a.k.a. Pharmakon, wore herself to a frazzle in Mason Yu's Leisure Center Yaletown store.

Industrial-noise performer Margaret Chardiet, a.k.a. Pharmakon, wore herself to a frazzle in Mason Yu’s Leisure Center Yaletown store.

EAR TODAY: Industrial noise around Yaletown once entailed hectic warehouse bays and locomotives shunting railcars on adjacent sidings. Today, it is an official art form practised by the likes of New Yorker Pharmakon (real name Margaret Chardiet) who has released four albums of it. She staged an industrial-noise set recently in Mason Wu’s huge, high-priced fashion store, Leisure Center. It included old-time tech when, eschewing a remote mic, Ms. Chardiet crawled between packed fans’ legs trailing a cable linked to a locomotive-volume PA system. No one was hurt, other than aurally perhaps.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: When employers say of faithful but sacked staff, “We wish them the very best on what’s to come,” what they mean is, “You’re too old and costly. Get lost.”

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Canadian Cancer Society's $1.5-million ball focused on survival

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FULL BLOOM: The Canadian Cancer Society’s 22nd annual Daffodil Ball reportedly raised $1.54 million in the Hotel Vancouver’s Pacific Ballroom recently. It will support programs to aid post-cancer patients with physical, emotional and psychological difficulties. You could say that the ball ran like a Swiss watch or Tesla car (a visit to the firm’s California factory was auctioned off), but, as with all such endeavours, a year of committee meetings, auction-item soliciting and ticket-selling was involved. The event was chaired for the fourth time by resource-sector securities lawyer Jennifer Traub and debuting co-chair Megan Lammam, a stay-home mom and wife of Cressey Development Group VP Hani Lammam. Between them, they likely sold 200 tickets at $550 to $1,000 each. “Everybody wants the VIP tables,” Traub said. So why not designate more of them? “Then they wouldn’t be for VIPs,” she said ruefully.

Megan Lammam and Jennifer Traub co-chaired the $1.54-million Daffodil Ball to help the Canadian Cancer Society support surviving patients.

Megan Lammam and Jennifer Traub co-chaired the $1.54-million Daffodil Ball to help the Canadian Cancer Society support surviving patients.

Kendra Sprinkling produced her 15th-annual Motown Meltdown! with Marie Hui and 20 singers, Sprinkling included, benefitting Seva Canada.

Kendra Sprinkling produced her 15th annual Motown Meltdown! with Marie Hui and 20 singers, Sprinkling included, benefitting Seva Canada.

SEEING THEIR WAY CLEAR: As a change from singing Canadian and U.S. National Anthems at Whitecaps and Canucks games, Marie Hui belted out Rufus and Chaka Khan’s 1974 soul-funk hit, Tell Me Something Good. That was at the Commodore Ballroom’s Motown Meltdown! concert where 21 volunteer performers — from Karen Lee Batten to Garfield Wilson — raised funds for Seva Canada’s eyesight-restoring projects in low-income countries. Eleventh on the bill, 15-year event producer Kendra Sprinkling sang the Isley Brothers’ It’s Your Thing. She also teamed with fellow solo-singers Linda Kidder and Jane Mortifee on several Motown classics, driven along by David Sinclair and The Scorchers powerhouse octet.

Chef Masayoshi Baba fronted one of seven teams feeding guests when Linda Poole's Sakura Night event aided the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Chef Masayoshi Baba fronted one of seven teams feeding guests when Linda Poole’s Sakura Night event aided the Cherry Blossom Festival.

VERY CHERRY: Surrounded by flowering cherry and magnolia trees, Stanley Park Pavilion hosted the fourth annual Sakura Night gala to raise a reported $30,000 for Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. Founder Linda Poole welcomed seven chefs and their serving-station teams. Among them, Masayoshi restaurant owner Masayoshi Baba served steamed sakura domyoji (rice cake wrapped in pickled cherry-blossom leaf) alongside albacore tuna with zucchini and onsen quail egg.

Operator Corinne Lea says $500,000 has been crowdfunded toward the Rio theatre's survival and a 10th anniversary party will go May 1.

Operator Corinne Lea says $500,000 has been crowdfunded toward the Rio theatre’s survival and a 10th anniversary party will go May 1.

O SOLE RIO: Corinne Lea (corinne@riotheatre.ca) reports that the #Savetherio crowdfunding campaign to prevent the Broadway-off-Commercial Rio theatre’s destruction and redevelopment has topped $500,000. A million-dollar down-payment deadline is May 7. Meanwhile, a 10th-anniversary party for the current operation should be a humdinger May 1.

HELPING OUT: More than grunts and bumps emanated from Maureen Wilson’s 34-year-old Sweat Co. gym when she staged a lip-sync contest to benefit Out in Schools. That’s the film-video-and-discussion program for students facing homophobia, transphobia and bullying. Drag entertainer Carlotta Gurl (Carl McDonald) fronted the show, and musicians like Patrick Steward (Odds, Bryan Adams, Colin James, etc.)  added to the happy racket.

Chefs Melanie Witt and Eva Chin and sommelier Claire Saksun served two dinners at Save On Meats to benefit the Better Life Foundation.

Chefs Melanie Witt and Eva Chin and sommelier Claire Saksun served two dinners at Save On Meats to benefit the Better Life Foundation.

GREASE-FREE: The fourth annual Greasy Spoon dinner benefited the Better Life Foundation with two sold-out sittings at Save On Meats. Royal Dinette executive chef Eva Chin, sommelier Claire Saksun and Savio Volpe sous-chef Melanie Witt served a Hawaiian-themed dinner including laulau pork, mochi rice and coconut shrub. Old hat for Chin who was raised on her grandparents 243-hectare Aiano Farm in North Oahu where her imu (underground oven) meals cooked while she surfed. Saksun backed the dish with Biodynamic Riesling from Fruitvale’s SOAHC winery. A Maui Blanc from that other island’s Tedeschi winery might have done the trick, too, especially for men wearing the BOSS firm’s shoes made from pineapple-leaf fibre.

Zohreh Waibel co-staged and Sahar Hosseini attended an Omid Foundation event to assist disadvantaged young women in their native Iran.

Zohreh Waibel co-staged and Sahar Hosseini attended an Omid Foundation event to assist disadvantaged young women in their native Iran.

GIVING HOPE With the Modernism in Iran exhibition continuing at Brigitte and Henning Freybe’s Griffin Art Projects gallery, expat Iranians gathered to help disadvantaged young women back in their birth country. Zohreh Waibel and Mana Jalalian hosted a reception for the international Omid Foundation that helps such women “experience a full range of life options through self-empowerment, education and training.” Endowed with all three, attending graphic designer Sahar Hosseini said she has run two full and 15 half marathons, and will donate to Omid (a male name meaning “hope”) the $2,000 she should raise at the BMO event here May 6.

In 2000, Michael Audain praised Vancouver Art Gallery's now-retiring Ian Thom for his book, Art BC: Masterworks from British Columbia.

In 2000, Michael Audain praised Vancouver Art Gallery’s now-retiring Ian Thom for his book, Art BC: Masterworks from British Columbia.

WELL DONE: Vancouver Art Gallery senior curator Ian Thom will retire after three decades of mounting 100 or so exhibitions and writing 13 books. His seventh was Art B.C.: Masterworks from British Columbia. VAG supporter-collector and subsequently private gallerist Michael Audain, who suggested the book and provided seed funding, said at its launch: “We have outstanding artists (who) take second place to none in the world. Those who say otherwise, this book puts the lie to them.”

START THE PRESSES: Editing a hefty community newspaper can be challenging even when you’re in the office. More so if you are 11,000 km away. Indo-Canadian Voice editor and former Vancouver Sun reporter Rattan Mall was juggling 80 or so pages remotely from India when someone stole his important mobile phone. The paper still came out on time, though.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: World Press Freedom Day and Lumpy Rug Day will both fall on May 3, and International Tuba Day May 4.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Fashion boost for Pacific Autism Family Network

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FROCKS POPULI: Over lunch at the Century-Plaza hotel recently, nine women, many of them familiar on local television, modelled multi-coloured Italian ensembles to benefit the Pacific Autism Network. More accustomed to being draped in gold, one was B.C. Liberal MLA for Parksville-Qualicum Michelle Stillwell. She won 16 gold medals in wheelchair racing and wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics and other international meets. She still goes by the pre-disability teenage nickname Mikey, bestowed by the coach of her otherwise-all-boy team. Among five men modelling, Stillwell’s autistic son Kai, 16, recently received a bronze medallion for life-saving. Women and men were dressed by Rachel Kapsalis and husband Franco Nigro’s Vetrina/Quorum stores. Not modelling but togged out in red serge jacket, riding breeches and boots was RCMP Staff Sergeant Major Stephen Blair Hurst. He is “champion” for the Richmond detachment’s autism first-responder awareness training program that has qualified close to 700 personnel, and recently expanded to northern B.C. Welcome news for hotel owners Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia and Sergio Cocchia who, having founded, continued to lead and spurred over $35 million in fundraising for the Pacific Autism Network, are bona fide champions themselves.

Parksville-Qualicum MLA and multi-gold Paralympian Michelle Stillwell and son Kai modelled at Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia’s autism benefit.


Back in his South Granville gallery locale after seven years, Petley Jones toted Tom Thompson’s 1914 Fall Woods, Algonquin Park, $1.5 million.

HOME AGAIN: The South Granville shopping district sees private art galleries come and go. Fewer go and come back, though. Petley Jones has done that, and into the space he occupied from 1988 to 2011. Not that he went far away. One block, in fact. So, strolling around the corner and up Granville Street to hang 15 Group of Seven paintings, two Jean-Paul Riopelle’s and one Emily Carr, he’s at home again, seemingly to stay.


Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra music director Ken Hsieh conducted Ryan Wang, 10, playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

GAINING TEMPO: Eighteen years after music director Ken Hsieh founded it, the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra held its first full-dress gala recently. A chic affair, too, with 350 guests paying $250 each. Many had family connections to the orchestra that Hsieh, now 37, dedicated “to the artistic, personal and professional development of outstanding young musicians.” The professional part was endorsed by flutist Paul Hung having a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra gig on gala night. Younger careerist Ryan Wang, 10, entertained guests by playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat. No personal breakthrough there as Ryan was five when he wowed host Elene DeGeneres and viewers with Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu in C sharp minor. Back at the gala, 22-year-old Jessica Zraly sang Adele’s eloquent if rather downlifting Water Under The Bridge accompanied by pianist and VMO composer in residence Trevor Hoffmann. While he and Hsieh have international careers. their at-home efforts greatly benefit many young musicians, the orchestra and the entire community.

Trevor Hoffmann accompanied Jessica Zraly, who sang Adele’s Water Under The Bridge, to the At Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra’s gala.


PARRYNOIA: Don’t get lost on World Labyrinth Day, May 5.


Recruitment firm founders Sarah McNeill and Cheryl Nakamoto also founded Grape Juice that raised $108,000 for Big Sisters recently.

HERE’S CHEERS: It’s somewhat counter-intuitive to see lots of wine drunk and auctioned where high-speed cars are sold. But the Grape Juice gala did that in the Aston Martin-Bentley facility, and reportedly raised $108,000 for Big Sisters of B.C. Lower Mainland. That organization served 819 at-risk girls in 2017, and has 155 wait-listed. The event’s 2008 founders, Cheryl Nakamoto, Sarah McNeill and husband Cam, chaired again. Now sole principle of the recruitment firm she and McNeill founded, Nakamoto recalled early says when they acted like their own wiser big sisters. They insisted on office-free Fridays and on taking all school holidays, including five weeks in the summer. “When we saw all the entrepreneurs that have failed marriages and no balance in their lives, we made a commitment to grow our company and achieve balance with our children,” she said.


Peter Wall has written a love song now being scored by Richard Margison, not about Aliaksandra Varslavan but our town, Vancouver.

HE’S LOVIN’ IT: After staging many top-rank singers at private concerts benefiting the Vancouver Song Institute and others, property developer Peter Wall has written a love song himself. Rather than decades-younger personal partner Aliaksandra Varslavan, its subject is Vancouver. Chicago, L.A., London, New York and Paris all have love songs. Canada seems bereft, although Stompin’ Tom Connors veered that way with Sudbury Saturday Night. Wall said Canadian tenor Richard Margison is scoring the lyrics and may perform them publicly, possibly with k.d. lang. An Albertan rhapsodizing Vancouver sounds hardly diplomatic, though. That said, former French consul general and charted singer-songwriter Jean-Yves Defay frequently performed, in French, a love song titled Vancouver. Its witty lyrics included such tongue twisters as vancouvertiginous, vancouvernal, vancouverdant and, most fittingly, vancouvercast. Maybe Wall and Margison will review the libretto.


Sir Tom Jones, who attended Jacqui Cohen’s debut Face The World gala in 1991, will return for the $2,500-per-ticket running June 4.

IT IS UNUSUAL: There may be a cake with 78 candles when Jacqui Cohen hosts the 28th-annual Face The World gala at her Point Grey waterfront home June 4. Not for Cohen but for Sir Tom Jones, who sang at the debut event and (with David Aisenstat and Umberto Menghi) remains an honorary patron. His actual birthday party will be May 7, possibly in his hometown of Pontypridd, Wales.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Let’s bet Attorney General David Eby wouldn’t dream of holding a public meeting on his coy electoral-reform plans that concerned voters almost certainly would gatecrash.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca, 604-929-8456

Town Talk: 'Underfunded' ovarian cancer research gets gala boost

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ON THE BALLS: It took fortitude for Barbara Fleming to press on knowing she had the most fatal women’s cancer and that it wouldn’t let go. Half of those diagnosed with ovarian cancer die within five years. Even so, research to identify and treat it receives only $16.9 million in Canadian Institute of Health Research funding annually compared to breast cancer’s $81.3 million. But press on six-year survivor Fleming did, raising tens of thousands in her Barb Fights Back campaign. Husband John jumped in by joining the Ovarian Cancer Canada board and raising more cash. The two received the Virginia Green memorial award when Ernst & Young partner Paul Palmer and Nemetz (S/A) & Associates chief administrative officer Franci Stratton chaired the recent Love Her gala. Proclaiming OCC’s Ladyballs slogan, it reportedly raised $210,000.

John and Barbara Fleming received an Ovarian Cancer Canada award that memorialized entrepreneur-deputy minister Virginia Green.

Franci Stratton and Paul Palmer chaired the Love her gala to help underfunded Ovarian Cancer Canada research the most fatal women’s cancer.


Married last year in Plum Coulee, Manitoba, violinist Rosemary Siemens and tenor-sax player Eli Bennett have become a hot performing duo.

THEY DID: Rosemary Siemens and Eli Bennett could have added the words “in costume and in tune” to the wedding vows they uttered in Plum Coulee, Manitoba last year. Violinist Siemens had performed in Carnegie Hall and the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel before she met Bennett, who plays the tenor sax as though he invented it. The sparkly attired two literally make beautiful music together now, most recently at Ovarian Cancer Canada and the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation’s back-to-back galas.


Provincial director Jennifer Petersen was delighted when a Bentley pedal-car raised $2,100 for the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada at an auction preceding the Hublot Diamond Rally for luxury and supercars.

TO THE METAL: Some $50-million-worth of luxury and supercars scooted to and from Whistler during last weekend’s charity-funding Hublot Diamond Rally. Before the start, the ADESA Richmond firm auctioned off 24 Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and other top cars. Last to go, a compact Bentley convertible, fetched $2,100. OK, it was 1.3 metres long and propelled by pedals. With team sponsorships and other donations, it raised $30,000 for the Children’ Wish Foundation of Canada and had provincial director Jennifer Petersen riding on air.


HORSEPOWER HOUSE: To house the exotic cars proliferating here, the Hungerford Properties firm will complete the two-floor Trove “condominium” project and clubhouse in summer, 2019. Occupying industrial-zoned land beside the Richmond Auto Mall, its 45 units will each hold up to 12 vehicles, boats, etc., said partner and 2006 Ford GT owner-driver Michael Hungerford. A larger “inner city” version will follow.


Uniformed here as the Royal Westminster Regiment’s colonel-in-chief, the late Duke of Westminster often visited his local Grosvenor interests.

DUKE GREETS EARLS: After a decade of developing Earls restaurants on the U.S. Atlantic coast from Boston to Miami, Stan Fuller has opened one in Ambleside. His father, firm founder Leroy Earl (Bus) Fuller, 90, attended. So did son Marshall, 23, who is day manager at the Beach House, Dundarave. They toted such Earls-made-and-bottled cocktails as gin-and-curacao-based Corpse Reviver. The restaurant’s landlord is a family business, too. Two steps higher than an earl on Britain’s peerage scale, the Grosvenor Group is owned by the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, 27. With a net worth of US$13 billion, he’ll likely get a right royal welcome in June when visiting the Vancouver area where his father was the Royal Westminster Regiment’s colonel-in-chief. Stan Fuller’s new 180-seat restaurant (and 70-seat patio) isn’t his first joint project with Grosvenor Americas chief executive Andrew Bibby. The former played prop and the latter outside half on the UBC Old Boys rugby squad. Bibby also played for Team Canada. Meanwhile, Fuller is back in the local business scrum with another same-sized Earls planned for Metrotown’s Station Square.

Marshall and dad Stan Fuller and dad Stan launched an Earls restaurant in Ambleside with such house-made cocktails as Corpse Reviver.


Kyle and Janelle Washington hosted a Heart & Stroke Foundation reception in the West End penthouse that was his quintessential bachelor pad.

HELPING HEARTS: Heart & Stroke B.C. & Yukon Foundation’s Heart of Gold gala skipped 2017 in benefiting the more than a million Canadians with heart disease and the 50,000 new cases diagnosed annually. It will return with a June 1 event already sold out. That’s according to first-time chair Jen Rainnie, the former Canadian windsurfing champion who founded the Malvados — Spanish for “wicked” — footwear firm in 2015. She was roped in after pitching her products to Flip Flop Shops’ co-founder, open-heart surgery survivor and HSF board chair Brian Curin. Rainnie, foundation CEO Adrienne Bakker and donors readied for the gala at a reception in Eagle Harbour residents Kyle and Janelle Washington’s pied-a-ciel West End penthouse. The former bachelor pad of Seaspan-owning billionaire clan scion Kyle, it retains a multi-head shower room possibly provided for use by visiting sports teams.

Heart & Stroke Foundation regional CEO Adrienne Bakker greeted Malvados footwear maker and Heart of Gold gala chair Jen Rainnie.


Northwest Ceramics Foundation awardees Jackie Frioud and Judy Chartrand showed an auction item made and donated by Jean Fahrni, 99.

GONE TO POTTERS: The Northwest Ceramics Foundation’s recent Oven and Kiln fundraiser made $2,500 awards to Judy Chartrand and Jackie Frioud. Fifty-five artists — from Eliza Au to Julie York — contributed works for auction at a Royal Vancouver Yacht Club banquet staged by Museum of Anthropology senior curator Carol Mayer. In 1993, Mayer founded the organization that “has no members. collects no dues and supports programs open to anyone in the province.” Event over, she left for 400-population Erub island north of Australia “to record the making of a sculpture of a giant turtle of ghost nets,” meaning the discarded fishing gear that imperils marine life worldwide.


DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Hospital emergency rooms are readying to treat certain civic-party officials who, at election times, tend to shoot themselves in the foot.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca, 604-929-8456

 


Town Talk: Courage To Come Back Awards honour five, raise $3 million

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ALL THE WAY: For its 20th annual running, Coast Mental Health’s Courage to Come Back Awards banquet dramatically moved forward. The Vancouver Convention Centre event drew 1,800 attendees compared to 1,500 in 2017, and reportedly almost doubled revenue to $3 million. Thirteen-year chair Lorne Segal praised awardees Ingrid Bates, Josh Dahling, Alisa Gil Silvestre, Jim Ryan and Suzanne Venuta’s “sheer determination to persevere in the face of all that life has placed before them.”

Jim Ryan and Suzanne Venuta received physical rehabilitation and mental health citations at the 20th Courage to Come Back awards gala.

Jim Ryan and Suzanne Venuta received physical rehabilitation and mental health citations at the 20th Courage to Come Back awards gala.

Vancouver Police Band's David Glover and Tim Fanning played Atholl Highlanders to lead in Courage to Come Back's head-table guests.

Vancouver Police Band’s David Glover and Tim Fanning played Atholl Highlanders to lead in Courage to Come Back’s head-table guests.

B.C. Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin feted Courage To Come Back awards chair Lorne Segal when the event reportedly raised $3 million.

B.C. Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin feted Courage To Come Back awards chair Lorne Segal when the event reportedly raised $3 million.

Vancouver Police Band pipers Tim Fanning and David Glover reflected those sentiments by playing Atholl Highlanders. The tune honoured courageous clans that suffered greatly for supporting Charles Edward Stuart’s (Bonnie Prince Charlie) 1745 bid to upset the British monarchy. Back at the gala, former military and airline pilot Jim Ryan sounded gung-ho for someone rendered quadriplegic by a Maui surfing accident. “I get invited to parties for my witty repartee,” he said after making several cheery jests. Then, glancing at his immobile body and limbs, “’Cause I can’t do anything else.” Except show dauntless courage, that is.

Douglas Coupland, here with fellow artist Angela Grossmann, saw his target painting almost triple its $10,000 estimate at the VAG auction.

Douglas Coupland, here with fellow artist Angela Grossmann, saw his target painting almost triple its $10,000 estimate at the VAG auction.

BULL’S-EYE: The Vancouver Art Gallery’s biannual art auction began with a bang when auctioneer Hank Bull got $24,000 for Douglas Coupland’s painting of a target that had been estimated at $10,000. Bidders then lowered their sights so that several of the 40 donated works sold around or under estimate or were withdrawn. VAG darling Jeff Wall’s contribution went for $55,000 over its $145,000 estimate, and fellow photo-artist Ian Wallace’s Riders of the Parthenon Frieze I and II ended $10,000 under at $140,000. After the auction, which saw more than $1.1 Million in sales and nearly 40 works sold, attendees targeted Mission Hill Family Estate wines and Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel executive chef Nathan Brown’s filet-mignon-centred banquet.

National soccer players and Olympics medalists Karina LeBlanc, Christine Sinclair and Rhia Wilkinson backed Marsh execs Sarah Robson and Anna Feglerska at the Power of Women event.

National soccer players and Olympics medalists Karina LeBlanc, Christine Sinclair and Rhia Wilkinson backed Marsh execs Sarah Robson and Anna Feglerska at the Power of Women event.

NET GAIN: Marsh Canada president-CEO Sarah Robson and senior VP Anna Feglerska hosted a late-afternoon session titled The Power of Women: How to Lead in The Face of Adversity. National soccer team players and bronze-medal Olympians Karina LeBlanc, Diana Matheson, Christine Sinclair and Rhian Wilkinson addressed attendees regarding empowerment, resilience, leadership and synergy. Having run deeply into what soccer referees would call stoppage time, they ended with a six-item questionnaire by goaltender LeBlanc that included the intriguing: “What does getting comfortable with being uncomfortable look like to you?”

PARRYNOIA: After banning straws, what will certain politicians have left to grasp at?

Royal Vancouver Yacht Club commodore Alan Stovell and wife Andree greeted members after a sailpast officially opened boating season.

Royal Vancouver Yacht Club commodore Alan Stovell and wife Andree greeted members after a sailpast officially opened boating season.

UNDER WEIGH: Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s opening day can entail the commodore standing in wind and driving rain while the club’s sailing and powered fleets slowly pass to salute him or her. Not this year, though. Aboard his Hunter 44, Le Soleil, Alan Stovell enjoyed blue-sky sunshine and a perfect breeze on English Bay, followed by splicing the main brace (drinks) at the Point Grey clubhouse.

Global ocean racer and mega-yacht designer Ron Holland's All The Oceans book should be required reading for anyone afloat here.

Global ocean racer and mega-yacht designer Ron Holland’s All The Oceans book should be required reading for anyone afloat here.

With boating season now begun, skippers have two important duties. One is to read every word of Ron Holland’s superbly illustrated All The Oceans. Vancouver resident Holland has competed in and often won more open-ocean sailing races than many have heard of. Among the ever-larger racing and cruising yachts he’s designed, single-masted M5 is too tall to pass beneath the Lions Gate Bridge. Skippers’ second duty is to haul their bumpers aboard when casting off rather than have them dangle like huge boogers to ruin their boats’ appearance.

Retired RCMP officers Bob Underwood and Laurier Cadieux officiated for the 27th time at Royal Vancouver Yacht Club's opening day.

Retired RCMP officers Bob Underwood and Laurier Cadieux officiated for the 27th time at Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s opening day.

MEN ASHORE: Retired RCMP officers Laurier Cadieux and Bob Underwood made their 27th appearance at RVYC’s opening day. The titanic two were long familiar as the force’s ceremonial officers, although not in the Musical Ride.

Okanagan Crush Pad's Steve Lornie toasted Dish 'n' Dazzle with wife, business partner and B.C. Hospitality Foundation chair Christine Coletta.

Okanagan Crush Pad’s Steve Lornie toasted Dish ‘n’ Dazzle with wife, business partner and B.C. Hospitality Foundation chair Christine Coletta.

BOTTOMS UP: B.C. Hospitality Foundation chair Christine Coletta saw 37 Argentine wine producers — from Alamos to Familia Zuccardi — serve their products when the Dish ‘n’ Dazzle tasting helped support distressed hospitality workers. “¡Esta es tu casa!” (make yourself at home), Wines of Argentina’s Alberto Arizu said as attendees sampled fare from 15 city restaurants and six bars. Coletta and husband Steve Lornie, who are principals of 45,000-cases-a-year Okanagan Crush Pad winery, recently acquired the 20.2-hectare Secrest Mountain Vineyard. That Oliver facility features 12.1 hectares of Gamay, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, Gris and Noir vines. The Okanagan’s current price “for  planted vineyard land is $150,000 to $200,000 per acre,” Coletta said, meaning $370,000 to $495,000 an acre.

FINDERS KEEPERS: Ian Wallace’s diptych at the Vancouver Art Gallery auction showed marble sculptures the 7th Earl of Elgin removed from Greece’s Parthenon temple after 1801 and sold to the British government in 1816. Most now reside in the British Museum. A 1980 visit to Broomhall, the Elgin family’s Scottish home, revealed several remaining chunks. Over Famous Grouse whisky, the present earl and Bruce clan head recalled being a boy when King George VI spotted the ancient masonry and stuttered words suitable for The King’s Speech movie. “W-w-ell, Elgin,” he reportedly said. “S-s-till got s-s-o-me of the s-s-wag,” I see.”

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: How happy we’ll be when movie, music, sports and other stars are named by proportional representation rather than archaic public acclaim.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Rolls-Royce enters the ubiquitous SUV market with a biggie

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TRUCKIN’ TIME: In the Gotham steak house recently, Brian Jessel auto-dealership partner Jim Murray handed a $200,000 cheque to Pancreatic Cancer Canada Foundation executive director Michelle Capobianco. Generated by the recent Cabriolet gala, the donation commemorated Jessel’s father Bernie, an old-time auto wholesaler who said: “Drop me from a plane over the Prairies in the middle of winter and I’ll have $100,000 worth of cars in no time.” Meanwhile, although the dealership sold 2,587 new and 2,360 pre-owned vehicles in 2017, Murray said: “The market is challenging this year.” Dramatically different, too. “Sixty-five per cent of sales will be SUVs,” Murray said. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have one. We’re kind of trucks ’r’ us now.”

Cabriolet gala sponsor Garry Zlotnik and Brian Jessel BMW partner Jim Murray gave a $200,000 cheque to Pancreatic Cancer Canada.

Cabriolet gala sponsor Garry Zlotnik and Brian Jessel BMW partner Jim Murray gave a $200,000 cheque to Pancreatic Cancer Canada.

Cyndi Ankenman, who will marry Garry Zlotnik July 5, has staged and supported pancreatic-cancer benefits with Myriam Glotman and others.

Cyndi Ankenman, who will marry Garry Zlotnik July 5, has staged and supported pancreatic-cancer benefits with Myriam Glotman and others.

THEY WILL: New and future Cabriolet gala sponsor Garry Zlotnik may soon have a $200,000 (or more) cheque to write himself. That would be when 200 guests attend his July 5 wedding to Cyndi Ankenman in the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel.

ROCKIN’ ROLLS: Rolls-Royce likely wouldn’t call its new Cullinan SUV a truck. Still, with Bentley, Lamborghini and Maserati already offering SUVs and Aston Martin and Ferrari versions near, Rolls-Royce had to stay on the pot. Named for 3,106.75-carat Cullinan diamond, the 25 models Open Road Group owner Christian Chia will receive and sell at a new Burrard-at-Fifth showroom this year should cost around $500,000 each. The 2,660-kg Cullinan’s claimed off-road capabilities aside, one can’t imagine buyers bashing through body-damaging bush, scrambling up ladder-steep trails and tiptoeing over rock fields better suited to Jeeps with oversized tires, locking axles, skid plates and winches. When you read this, Chia, who usually races Porsches in Asia, will have just spent 12 hours with brother Marcel and cousin Michael campaigning a Spanish SEAT Leon sedan on Italy’s five-km Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari racetrack. Pity they couldn’t have entered a Cullinan with the off-duty drivers sharing a Fortnum & Mason picnic hamper, albeit not while perched on the tailgate’s slide-out leather seats.

 

Casper Ramsay, 8, emulated the 60-year-old Austin-Healey Sprite's grille and "bugeye" headlights at the All British Field Meet.

Casper Ramsay, 8, emulated the 60-year-old Austin-Healey Sprite’s grille and “bugeye” headlights at the All British Field Meet.

DO BUG ME: Far from the effulgence of Rolls-Royces, BMWs and suchlike, the humblest of sports cars celebrated its 60th birthday at the 33rd-annual All British Field Meet. Several Austin-Healey Sprites occupied the VanDusen Botanical Garden lawn, reminding visitors that $2,000 was more than you needed to buy, insure and even race what was basically an entry-level Morris Minor sedan with an elementary roadster body. Headlights seemingly glued to the hood gave it the Bugeye nickname that still endures. Let’s hope there’ll be plenty still running for the marque’s centenary.

Colin James sang the blues but Naz Panahi certainly didn't when she chaired Arthritis Research Canada's $330,000 ARThritis Soiree fundraiser.

Colin James sang the blues but Naz Panahi certainly didn’t when she chaired Arthritis Research Canada’s $330,000 ARThritis Soiree fundraiser.

NAZ NEWS: Colin James sang blues from his imminent 20th album when the ARThritis Soiree ran in the Hotel Vancouver Roof. No blues, though, from six-time chair Naz Panahi who reported $330,000 raised for Arthritis Research Canada. She’ll move on, said Panahi, who twice chaired the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Ball. No doubt we’ll see her charitably active again soon.

FOR A GOOD TIME: The Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s $40 self-guided Heritage House Tour on June 3 (vancouverheritagefoundation.org) should be partial but pleasing.

Reveal chairs Clara Aquilini and Christi Yassin saw the autism benefit gain $40,000 from an anonymous donor's Dior Boutique purchases.

Reveal chairs Clara Aquilini and Christi Yassin saw the autism benefit gain $40,000 from an anonymous donor’s Dior Boutique purchases.

FULLY DRESSED: For the Canucks Autism Foundation’s June 9 Reveal gala, the Dior boutique recently donated 10 per cent of one day’s sales. Gala co-chairs Clara Aquilini and Christi Yassin were delighted when one supporter spent $400,000 in the Hotel Vancouver store. You’d need a truck to move that much merch from kitty-corner Le Chateau.

Vancouver Aquarium CEO John Nightingale received a golden-fish-float necklace from Vortex artist-exhibitor Douglas Coupland.

Vancouver Aquarium CEO John Nightingale received a golden-fish-float necklace from Vortex artist-exhibitor Douglas Coupland.

FLOATING WORLD II: Vancouver Aquarium president and CEO John Nightingale now has a fishing-float necklace that came from Japan — piece by piece on ocean currents. They also carried material from the 2011 tsunami that Douglas Coupland salvaged on Haida Gwaii for his Vortex installation at the aquarium. His Floating World show opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery 31 years earlier. The gold-painted necklace acknowledges Coupland’s respect for Nightingale’s convincing the aquarium board to invest on a show that portrays oceans negatively. The Smithsonian Institution, Connecticut’s Mystic Museum and Britain’s Tate Modern reportedly want the show following its 11-month run in a 10,000-litre tank the aquarium had handy.

Julia, Siri and Lauren Coupland feted Uncle Douglas Coupland on opening his Vortex installation of transoceanic trash at Vancouver Aquarium.

Julia, Siri and Lauren Coupland feted Uncle Douglas Coupland on opening his Vortex installation of transoceanic trash at Vancouver Aquarium.

TAPPED OUT: Your sore feet (and ears) should be recovering from the excesses of National Tap Dance Day May 25.

Hastings Racecourse's Deighton Cup founders Tyson Villeneuve, Dax Droski and Jordan Kallman have repeated it at Toronto's Woodbine track.

Hastings Racecourse’s Deighton Cup founders Tyson Villeneuve, Dax Droski and Jordan Kallman have repeated it at Toronto’s Woodbine track.

SAFE BET: Dax Droski, Jordan Kallman and Tyson Villeneuve will stage the 10th annual Deighton Cup at Hastings Racecourse on July 21. Hundreds more mostly young folk attend each year. Nattily sportive men puff on cigars. Women wear shrink-wrap dresses with hems higher than their towering heels. Many swig real Champagne. The formula was too successful not to repeat. That’s why May 26 sees the Greenwood Stakes — it commemorates Toronto’s defunct Greenwood Raceway — launch at that city’s Woodbine track with 1,000 expected, Villeneuve said.

SETTING IT STRAIGHT: Ham-fisted typing saw Vancouver Art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels’ name rendered as Barrels here on May 19.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Given the mayoral race’s pantomime antics, past contenders Barb E. Doll, Frank The Moose, Mr. Peanut and especially Sage Advice might consider running again.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Raising funds to identify deeply hidden cancers

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PET PEOPLE: An embroidered cushion in Hanna Hoyos-Molnar’s Shaughnessy living room reads: “Money isn’t everything but it sure keeps the kids in touch.” Two million dollars’ worth of it would also help keep kids alive. Adults, too. That sum is needed to upgrade a decade-old PET/CT scanner, a high-tech cancer-diagnostic device “that is a really critical tool,” according to B.C. Cancer medical oncologist Sharlene Gill. Gill was addressing donors who will backstop the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s Hope Couture fundraising luncheon on Sept. 18. Forgive the personal aside, but a then-rare PET (positron emission tomography) scan in 2003 showed that an esophageal tumour I had developed had not metastasized. Doing so would have guaranteed my death. That welcome diagnosis cleared the way for treatment. Gill prescribed chemotherapy. Dr. John Hay ordered radiation. And surgeon John Yee eventually removed the tumour they had killed. A pet dog may be one’s best friend, but a “clear” PET scan of cancer’s tiny details is even better.

Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society chair Peter K. Wong and aunt Fei Wong attended a legacy gala for the June 22-24 race series.

Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society chair Peter K. Wong and aunt Fei Wong attended a legacy gala for the June 22-24 race series.

SPIRIT MOVED: Supporters of the June 22-24 Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival gathered recently at Concord Pacific Place. The Legacy Gala held there recognized the annual racing series’ 1986 origins and its late co-founder, Milton Wong. The financial-management firm boss established the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society in 1988, and succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2011. His widow, Fei, attended the gala along with nephew Peter K. Wong, who is the society’s chair. Fei recalled the family racing as a team named Paddlin’ The Wong Way. “We weren’t very competitive,” she said. Then, reflecting on a more characteristic Wong way, “But we had spirit.”

Backing B.C. Seafood Festival's Nathan Fong, Eva Chin, Shelome Bouvette and Amber Bruce will cook at the event's all-female-chef banquet.

Backing B.C. Seafood Festival’s Nathan Fong, Eva Chin, Shelome Bouvette and Amber Bruce will cook at the event’s all-female-chef banquet.

FISH STORY: Nathan Fong boarded the dinner-and-sightseeing cruiser Pacific Yacht recently to promote the 12th annual B.C. Seafood Festival he’s produced since 2014. The June 8-17 festival will be in the Comox Valley. Global chefs are expected, and city restaurateurs Tojo Hidekazu and Pino Posteraro will judge a $5,000 prize event. There’ll also be a sold-out, all-female-chef-and-bartender dinner for 400 at Filbert Heritage Lodge. “I called 13, expected eight, and they’re all coming.” Fong said. He’s good at that. In 2003, Fong founded the Scotiabank Passions gala to benefit the Dr. Peter Centre, and has had top city restaurants send their kitchen squads ever since.

Chef-restaurateurs Hidekazu Tojo and Pino Posteraro will judge the B.C. Seafood Festival $5,000-prize tournament for chefs.

Chef-restaurateurs Hidekazu Tojo and Pino Posteraro will judge the B.C. Seafood Festival $5,000-prize tournament for chefs.

THE PAUSE THAT RELAXES: How long before Coca-Cola brings us the booze-spiked “chu-hi” fruit beverages it has launched in Japan?

Retiring Vancouver Chamber Choir conductor Jon Washburn welcomed mezzo-soprano Dinah Aye who performed at a fundraising banquet.

Retiring Vancouver Chamber Choir conductor Jon Washburn welcomed mezzo-soprano Dinah Aye who performed at a fundraising banquet.

BATON PRACTICED: “I’m the oldest and she’s the youngest,” Vancouver Chamber Choir conductor Jon Washburn said as mezzo-soprano Dinah Ayre sang Benjamin Britten’s Tell Me The Truth About Love at the choristers’ annual Divertimento dinner-concert. The work reflected attendees’ opinion of Washburn, who’ll retire in 2019. Meanwhile, he and the choir will tour Ontario in July, then pack throat lozenges for a February performing whirl from Alberta to Newfoundland. Washburn’s swan song will be at a Chan Centre concert on July 6 which he and choir will end with Canadian composer Murray Shafer’s The Love That Moves The Universe.

Bill Jordan and others opened South Granville's Grail sneaker store by snapping guests with way-back-to-the-future Polaroid cameras.

Bill Jordan and others opened South Granville’s Grail sneaker store by snapping guests with way-back-to-the-future Polaroid cameras.

FEET AND INCHES: Polaroid OneStep 2 cameras churned out 3.3-by-4.25-inch (10.8-by-8.9-cm) photos of attendees at the opening of South Granville’s Grail sneaker store. Such “instant” cameras almost vanished with the rise of digital photography. But they flashed and whirred at Grailed because CEO Bill Jordan’s 11-year-old daughter Kate calls them “retro and cool.” He’s likely happier when shoppers say the same for the store’s New Balance 247 and Endavour Voile Blanche sneakers at $160 and $280 a pair.

SAY CHEESY: With phone-camera advertisements bamboozling buyers that they’ll “shoot like a pro,” maybe keyboard manufacturers will claim their products automatically turn out best-selling novels.

Ross Penhall's paintings in 2013 were riotous with colour and were filled with multi-hued trees that resembled so much cotton candy.

Ross Penhall’s paintings in 2013 were riotous with colour and were filled with multi-hued trees that resembled so much cotton candy.

Long-time landscape painter Ross Penhall's Gallery Jones exhibition is composed of works that largely forsake the bright colours of earlier ones.

Long-time landscape painter Ross Penhall’s Gallery Jones exhibition is composed of works that largely forsake the bright colours of earlier ones.

STILL ON FIRE: Two decades ago, painter Ross Penhall’s landscapes were bright as the flames he doused as a West Vancouver firefighter. His rows of trees suggested cotton candy. Green predominated, not least in the large sums collectors soon paid for his works. Other than the sustained prices, it’s a different scene today. Penhall’s recent exhibition at Gallery Jones still features landscapes, albeit darker and moodier. Mist and rain-heavy clouds dominate such works as a large canvas of Indian Arm’s northern reaches that would have kayakers checking their rain gear.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Look out for the Architecture and Design Film Festival now being funded.

Mobility Pricing Independent Commissioner Joy MacPhail and James Shavick's home overlooks a street where car mobility is banned.

Mobility Pricing Independent Commissioner Joy MacPhail and James Shavick’s home overlooks a street where car mobility is banned.

TOLLED YOU SO: Mobility Pricing Independent Commission vice-chair Joy MacPhail’s living room overlooks a once-public thoroughfare that cars can’t access at any price. It’s the eight-block stretch of Point Grey Road that city hall closed in 2014 to all but residents and cyclists. With his now-insulated mansion there assessed at $78.8 million, Chip Wilson and other waterfront homeowners face hefty hits from the NDP government’s “school tax.” That exaction would likely have nettled ocean-sider and former NDP attorney general Alex Macdonald had he lived.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Taxpayers may weigh whether $4.5 billion for an established enterprise is less prudent than a half-billion for fast ferries.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Show duo help raise $840,000 for heart and stroke

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B.C. & Yukon Heart and Stroke Foundation board chair Brian Curin feted Jen Rainnie on the Heart of Gold gala she co-chaired.

ALL HEART: Malvados footwear firm founder Jen Rainnie chaired the 13th annual Heart of Gold gala that reportedly raised $840,000 for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. B.C.-Yukon board chair and former Flip Flop footwear stores owner Brian Curin was as pleased as when he survived quadruple-bypass surgery at Vancouver Hospital at age 38 in 2012.

Huntingtons research neurologist Blair Leavitt and wife Laurie Sehn, the lymphoma-tumour researcher, attended the Heart of Gold gala.

At the gala, Curin introduced neurologist Blair Leavitt, the global leader in Huntington’s disease research whom he has long called Conan because he resembles talk-show host Conan O’Brien. Leavitt accompanied wife and lymphoma-tumour researcher Laurie Sehn. “They have 85 per cent success,” he said of her specialty. “We started with a horrible, devastating neurological disorder with a zero per cent success rate.” Perhaps not for long, though. Huntington’s has been cured in mice, Dr. Leavitt said. “In three or four years, we should have a treatment.” What a boon, especially for those waiting until middle age to learn of its onset.

Azim Jamal offered his Coal Harbour penthouse for sister Zahra Salisbury to co-chair the Sparkle fundraiser previously held in her home.

MOTHERS’ HELPERS: Held in a Coal Harbour penthouse, the Sparkle soirée reportedly raised $475,000 to help the B.C. Women’s Hospital + Health Centre Foundation fund birthing suites. Presented by Beedie Development, it was hosted by Azim Jamal, the CEO of Pacific Reach Properties whose portfolio includes the Rosewood Hotel Georgia acquired in 2017. Jamal’s sister Zahra Salisbury founded the at-home Sparkle in 2015 but, following remarriage and relocation, “needed a new venue.” She co-chaired with developer Dale Bosa and publisher-marketer Ryan Benn. Hospital president-CEO Genesa Greening thanked attendees with: “Together we can provide British Columbia mothers options for the best delivery experience possible.”

Dale Bosa and Ryan Benn co-chaired the $375,000 Sparkle event that benefitted the B.C. Women’s Hospital + Health Centre Foundation.

 

Anna Wallner displayed her recently acquired Savoury Chef catering firm’s scallop BLTs that were a hit at the Sparkle event.

IN THE FAMILY: Anna Wallner fed Sparkle attendees such delectables as scallop BLTs — baked scallops stuffed with bacon, lettuce and tomato. The former TV-series co-host (Shopping bags, etc.) bought the 27-staff Savoury Chef catering firm in February with a silent partner possibly in the mining and olive-oil business. Wallner learned catering from mother Sally Beattie, who served peanut butter and banana roll-up sandwiches at Toronto-law-firm events. “They cost me two cents and I sell them for $1.25,” she told Wallner, whose bestsellers are chocolate-chip cookies.

DREAM OF FIELDS: Athletic-arena veterans were applauded when Gina Iandiorio and Dale Saip co-chaired the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame’s Induction Gala. So were inductees from previous decades were when entering the Parq Convention Vancouver ballroom. Marvin Storrow QC continued as gala ambassador. The parading athletes were escorted by six youngsters wearing jerseys emblazoned with the slogan: Future Hall of Famer. Most came from Surrey’s Artistic Edge Dance Academy. Asked what he  likes to play, six-year-old Jeremy Beck said: “Hockey, lacrosse and piano,” thus holding a two-in-three chance of realizing his jersey’s promise.

B.C. Lions Felions cheerleader Chanel Stovern wore ballet tutu and pointe shoes when the Sparkle event benefitted B.C. Women’s Hospital.

GIVE US AN L: Adding Swan Lake flavour to the Sparkle soirée, swing-riding Chanel Stovern wore corps-de-ballet tutu, tights, pointe shoes and feathered wings. Thousands more will see her perform as a Felions cheerleader at B.C. Lions home games where sparkle on the gridiron might be appreciated.

Former multi-restaurateur Jack Evrensel congratulated lawyer-brother Arthur on his lifetime-achievement citation at the Leo Awards gala.

Actor-writer-director and earlier Leo Awards ceremony co-host Lucie Guest was greeted at the main event by Leos founder Walter Daroshin.

PRIZE NIGHT: The Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation of B.C.’s 1996 debut Leo Awards gala rated Walter Daroshin and Gary Harvey’s The War Between Us film its top movie. Daroshin soon began managing the ceremony which ran in the Hyatt Regency Hotel recently. Black Kite was named best motion picture, with Daniel Doheny and Ta’kaiya Blaney best male and female performers. On receiving a lifetime-achievement award, entertainment industry lawyer Arthur Evrensel was congratulated by restaurateur-brother Jack, who may have employed more screen performers than anyone present. They’d have served table at the seven-outlet Toptable Group he sold in 2014. One former server, Lucie Guest, received two 2018 Leos nominations and co-emceed a preliminary gala. Regarding her short film Never Better, she said in true Oscars style: “I want to thank all my past boyfriends for giving me the inspiration to write and direct this comedy about heartbreak.”

Knowledge Network president/CEO Rudy Buttignol saw viewers donate $4.5 million this year compared to $1.7 million in his debut year, 2007. For Mac Parry’s Town Talk column on Saturday, June 9. [PNG Merlin Archive]

THE MORE YOU KNOW: Knowledge Network’s 11-year president-CEO, Rudy Buttignol, sounded buoyant at a reception Rogers Communications and the Rogers Group of Funds staged at North Vancouver’s oceanfront Polygon Gallery. The network “raised $1.7 million in 2007 and $4.5 million this year, all by voluntary donations from  39,000 people,” Buttignol said. Also in North Vancouver, Knowledge’s fall-airing Living in Hope documentary series will cover Lions Gate Hospital’s Hope Centre mental-health facility.

THEY KNEW JACK: The B.C. Sports Hall of Fame’s 2005 W.A.C Bennett Award recipient, Jack Poole, died in 2009. But he still serves the community as he did upon giving $3 million toward a multi-purpose surgical robot. When surgeon-scientist Larry Goldenberg asked for Poole’s  attribution wishes, he replied: “Just call it Jack.” Recently with that robot ailing  and replacement funding stalled, widow Darlene pondered on what her late husband would do. That’s why the Jack and Darlene Poole Foundation donated $2 million and why Jack Jr. is now at work.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Here’s wishing all big palookas Happy Donald Duck Day June 9.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Canucks Autism Network gala nets $1,123,695

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QUIET KNIGHT: As he did at the Face The World gala’s 1990 founding, Sir Tom Jones co-hosted the recent running at Jacqui Cohen’s Point Grey waterfront home. Before $2,500-a-ticket attendees tucked into Gotham-restaurant-furnished beef tenderloin, butter-poached lobster and Le Vieux Pin and La Stella wines, Cohen announced that earlier events had generated more than $18 million for hundreds of local charities. As for Jones influencing those celebrations (the first raised $85,000), Cohen said: “Tom, on behalf of the entire city of Vancouver, you have made a great difference in people’s lives.” No singing for his supper, though, despite belting out hits two days earlier at the Orpheum Theatre and, three days later, at his 78th birthday party in hometown Pontypridd, Wales. At Face The World, it was: Forgive me, Delilah, I just couldn’t sing anymore.

Jacqui Cohen greeted Sir Tom Jones at the Face The World gala he also attended in 1990 and that has raised close to $20 million since.

Jacqui Cohen greeted Sir Tom Jones at the Face The World gala he also attended in 1990 and that has raised close to $20 million since.

ONE GOOD TURN: One Face The World attendee did hear Tom Jones sing. That was Grenville Thomas who discovered northern Canada’s rich diamond deposits, built Dundarave’s Red Lion pub and was born in Swansea, 50 crow-fly kilometres from Jones’s birthplace. As a youth, Thomas attended a concert in another South Wales village, Tonypandy. After ventriloquists, jugglers and others had performed, he recalled, “The MC announced: ‘Our next turn is a b’y from down the valley, Tom Woodward.’” Stepping up, the soon-to-be Tom Jones sang the joint’s lights out.

Here with Cheri Pedersen, Canadian diamonds pioneer Grenville Thomas saw Tom Jones sing in a South Wales club when both were young.

Here with Cheri Pedersen, Canadian diamonds pioneer Grenville Thomas saw Tom Jones sing in a South Wales club when both were young.

MOST REVEALING: Clara Aquilini and Christi Yassin co-chaired the Canucks Autism Network’s Reveal gala that reportedly raised $1,123,695 recently. The event took place, as usual, at Rogers Arena. The take exceeded by some $200,000 and $300,000 the salaries of Canucks defencemen Derrick Pouliot and Troy Stecher who joined the co-chairs for a locker-room photo. Surrounding the arena, large video screens pictured the event’s theme locale: the French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez.

Mike Killeen and Tamara Taggart MCed the Reveal gala and did some amusing shtick on their recent terminations as CTV News anchors.

Mike Killeen and Tamara Taggart MCed the Reveal gala and did some amusing shtick on their recent terminations as CTV News anchors.

Down at ice level, MCs and former CTV News anchors took easygoing swings at their ex-employer. “It’s nice to be on TV again,” Taggart said, pointing to a monitor. “We can’t be fired again. We can say what we want.”

“We were blindsided,” Killeen said of their dismissal.

As for future employment, “I would be a good (Canucks) coach. I would be a good GM,” Taggart said. “You need a new GM, don’t you?”

“She said she could say anything she liked,” Killeen deadpanned.

Global B.C.'s Sophie Lui may rack up frequent-flyer points after Philip Meyer becomes manager of a Silicon Valley Rosewood hotel on July 9.

Global B.C.’s Sophie Lui may rack up frequent-flyer points after Philip Meyer becomes manager of a Silicon Valley Rosewood hotel on July 9.

TECH SETTER: After 19 years managing the Wedgewood hotel and three at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Philip Meyer will skipper Rosewood’s Sand Hill hotel in Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park starting July 9. That could entail close friend and Global B.C. News Hour co-anchor Sophie Lui accumulating many frequent-flyer points.

Goldcorp president-CEO David Garafolo and Christie Darbyshire will blend a family of eight children when they wed Aug. 23.

Goldcorp president-CEO David Garafolo and Christie Darbyshire will blend a family of eight children when they wed Aug. 23.

ALL THAT GLITTER: Let’s see what David Garofalo will place on Christie Darbyshire’s fourth finger Aug. 23 to accompany the hefty solitaire already there. After all, groom-to-be Garofalo is president and CEO of Goldcorp, which produced 2.6 million ounces of gold last year. By blending her five children, his three and the newlyweds themselves, there’ll be enough for a lacrosse or slow-pitch team — the Vancouver Goldies, perhaps.

Milene Vallin, Emma Irvine, Kristina Dombrovskis, Julia Wei and Danielle Leroux at the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs' garden party.

Milene Vallin, Emma Irvine, Kristina Dombrovskis, Julia Wei and Danielle Leroux at the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs’ garden party.

GO-GETTERS: Executive-director Larkin Mackenzie-Ast fronted the 16-year-old Forum For Women Entrepreneurs organization’s annual garden party atop the Telus Gardens. Among those in attendance were participants in an April-launched program named for goddess of youth Juventas. It provides women aged 16 to 29 an intensive entrepreneurial and skill-development session followed by a year with FWE’s seasoned mentors.

Differing from her large paintings of animals, Shannon Belkin's study of Andy Warhol fetched $10,000 at a Face The World gala auction.

Differing from her large paintings of animals, Shannon Belkin’s study of Andy Warhol fetched $10,000 at a Face The World gala auction.

PAINTER PAINTED: Known for her canvases of horses, bulldogs, roosters and suchlike, Shannon Belkin donated a portrait of late artist Andy Warhol to the Face The World gala. Auctioneers Howard Blank and Fiona Forbes promptly got $10,000 for it. Warhol himself once advised folk not to spend lavishly on artworks, but to hang the cash on their walls instead. Some gala attendees likely remembered him visiting Vancouver’s Ace Gallery in 1976. Knowing the artist’s distaste for interviews, then-magazine columnist Mati Laansoo wrote a review beforehand in which he had Warhol confess to being a frustrated professional tap-dancer forced into contemporary art by his mother. Presented with it, Warhol wrote, “This is the best interview I ever gave,” and drew soup cans on the final page. That might be worth a pretty penny today.

Some of Jacques Barbeau's 70 E.J. Hughes artworks were seen when Robert Amos's book on the B.C. artist launched in the Barbeau home.

Some of Jacques Barbeau’s 70 E.J. Hughes artworks were seen when Robert Amos’s book on the B.C. artist launched in the Barbeau home.

BUY RIGHT: Late B.C. artist E.J. Hughes’s works can fetch close to $2 million. Former law-firm principal Jacques Barbeau paid $4,500 in 1969 when beginning to assemble more than 70 Hughes paintings and drawings. Twenty years later, he wrote the 182-page A Journey With E.J. Hughes. Recently, his collection still intact, Barbeau opened his home for the launch of Robert Amos’s $35 book, E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island. Addressing neophyte collectors in one of his own books, Barbeau quoted The Arts, For What They Are Worth author William Grampp: “What is unique about the price of art as an asset … is the frequency in which the price falls to zero.”

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Treana Peake’s charitable Obakki Foundation deserves extra support June 16, the International Day of the African Child.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Multibillionaire duke visits local holdings

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UP WITH THE DUKE: Affluent individuals are five a penny in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia’s Reflections Lounge. But they were eclipsed recently by 27-year-old Hugh Grosvenor. Resembling a better-looking Hugh Grant, Grosvenor, who has been the seventh Duke of Westminster since 2016, has a net worth topping $17 billion. His holdings include swaths of London’s ritzy Mayfair and Belgravia districts developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. B.C. interests began in 1953 with Annacis Island. Current projects include the completed Grosvenor Ambleside condo-retail development and the under-construction Hornby-at-Pacific Grosvenor. The Vancouver-based Grosvenor Americas chief executive, Andrew Bibby, will retire this year and be succeeded by Canada-born Steve O’Connell who has handled corporate investments from San Francisco.

Here with Natasha Highberger and Patti Glass, Steve O'Connell will succeed Andrew Bibby as Vancouver-based Grosvenor Americas CEO.

Here with Natasha Highberger and Patti Glass, Steve O’Connell will succeed Andrew Bibby as Vancouver-based Grosvenor Americas CEO.

STANDING ON: Threatened by Britain’s 1945-1951 Labour government, much of the Grosvenors’ property was saved by the then-duke’s diligent agent, George Ridley. Back then, ousted Conservative prime minister Winston Churchill commented on the new government’s administration’s confiscatory ways when he entered a House of Commons men’s room already occupied by the Labour prime minister, Clement Attlee. Seeing Churchill move to a distant plumbing fixture, Attlee said: “Feeling standoffish today, are we Winston?” “Not at all, Clem,” Churchill replied. “But when you socialists see something big, you want to nationalize it.”

Restaurateur-chef Vikram Vij prepared a curry to his mother's recipe at a demonstration in the OpenRoad Audi dealership's showroom.

Restaurateur-chef Vikram Vij prepared a curry to his mother’s recipe at a demonstration in the OpenRoad Audi dealership’s showroom.

FAVOURING CURRY: As if its $200,000-plus R8 Spyder model wasn’t hot enough, the OpenRoad Audi dealership recently had restaurateur-chef Vikram Vij cook curry in its Lougheed-at-Boundary showroom. A surrounding audience frequently applauded Vij, whose speaking style blends on-the-stump politician with TV preacher. Unsurprisingly he told of aspiring to be a Bollywood actor until his father forbade it. More practically, the elder Vij aided his son’s restaurant debut by arriving in Canada with an envelope containing far more US$100 bills than were permitted. “They did not ask, I did not tell,” he said. One hundred dollars became ingenue restaurateur Vij’s mantra for daily success. “If there was only $96 in the cash register, I would put in a $4 order for naan,” he said.

Vij’s mother helped out, too. The chicken-based curry he demonstrated for Audi guests was the one “she made in Richmond and kept warm between her legs on the way to the restaurant.” Pooh-poohing a popular poultry item, Vij said: “Chicken white meat is the most boring meat there is. Always cook with the bone in.”

Paul and Devina Zalesky sampled a high-tech bike while sponsoring a B.C. Cancer Foundation in Audi Downtown's showroom.

Paul and Devina Zalesky sampled a high-tech bike while sponsoring a B.C. Cancer Foundation in Audi Downtown’s showroom.

AUDI DO TWO: While Vij stirred curry at OpenRoad Audi, a crowd in the Audi Downtown showroom put $22,000 into another pot. That sum benefited the B.C. Cancer Foundation and the 200-km Ride to Conquer Cancer, set for Aug. 25-26. Ride director Lindsay Carswell said the multi-province cycling event’s nine-year fundraising total is $85 million. Fiona Forbes MCed the event, Howard Blank was auctioneer and AllWest Insurance owners Devina and Paul Zalesky were presenting sponsors. While Devina straddled a $4,499 Propel Advanced Disc bicycle destined for the run, Paul recounted some of the 122 vehicles he has owned, including several Ferraris, Porsches and suchlike. His sole Audi was a 1979 Fox that might be the automotive equivalent of white meat from Vij’s henhouse.

Former Non-Partisan Association VP Rob Macdonald and former mayor Gordon Campbell likely talked election strategy at the Grosvenor reception.

Former Non-Partisan Association VP Rob Macdonald and former mayor Gordon Campbell likely talked election strategy at the Grosvenor reception.

REMEMBER WHEN: Rob Macdonald and Gordon Campbell’s earnest chinwag at the Grosvenor reception may have been about the Non-Partisan Association’s municipal election strategy. Developer Macdonald is a multi-property owner, real-estate developer and former NPA vice-president who has written those initials on cheques, once for $910,000. Campbell was a three-term Vancouver mayor (and three-time B.C. premier) from 1986 to 1993, when NPA stood for Never Permit Antagonism, and the non-party supported candidates with less infighting than at Castello Borgia.

A 2007 photo shows parents Monika and Avtar and siblings Alina, Chaya and Avani backing Jaden Bains who in 2018 has recently graduated as Saint George's school's valedictorian and head boy.

A 2007 photo shows parents Monika and Avtar and siblings Alina, Chaya and Avani backing Jaden Bains who in 2018 has recently graduated as Saint George’s school’s valedictorian and head boy.

TIME SCOOTS: It did for Jaden Bains who graduated recently as Saint George’s school’s valedictorian and head boy. He was last seen in this column in a 2007 photo with his parents and siblings Alina, Chaya and Avani. Mother Monika Deol is the former MuchMusic VJ and father Avtar Bains is the Premise Properties founder and principal.

Lady Show actors Fatima Dhowre, Morgan Brayton and Katie-Ellen Humphries backed Firehall Arts Centre artistic producer Donna Spencer at a fundraiser there.

Lady Show actors Fatima Dhowre, Morgan Brayton and Katie-Ellen Humphries backed Firehall Arts Centre artistic producer Donna Spencer at a fundraiser there.

STILL AFLAME: Donna Spencer’s 38 years as the Firehall Arts Centre’s artistic producer is the cultural-endurance equivalent of the recent rain-extended Edmonton-Winnipeg CFL game. Not that Spencer got to sit out her mid-career, but she has weathered plenty of storms. Plenty of fundraisers, too, including a recent $5,000-and-change one fittingly titled Eat Drink Play. It saw nine nearby restaurants and eight beer, wine and liquor concerns give the Cordova-at-Gore facility’s guests plenty to enjoy in anterooms and patio. Individual performers and cast members from Jasper in Deadland and The Lady Show entertained in the theatre. Spencer herself signed on in 1981 while caring for two young children, one of whom grew up to be two-term New Democrat MLA Chandra Spencer Herbert.

SHAME AGAIN: Firehall Arts Centre will stage The Tashme Project: The Living Architecture April 3-13, 2019. On July 27 this year, the Nikkei National Museum will conduct a $125 bus trip to Tashme, a Second World War Japanese-Canadian internment camp located on the since-built Hope-Princeton Highway.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: If only Tweeter The Great had been separated from his parents.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Building a beautiful home that meets its own energy needs

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PASSIVE ACTION: CORE Energy Recovery Solutions CEO James Dean knew all about heat exchangers and in-structure climate control when he considered building a passive house. Those Swedish/German-developed airtight buildings are energy-efficient enough to pump electrical power into a utility rather than vice-versa. But when wife Janet Allan said, “They’re all ugly,” Dean decided to go for it. By specifying huge triple-glazed windows, weighing up to 567 kg each, the BattersbyHowat Architects firm nixed the ugly designation. After installing high-tech hardware from his and other firms, Dean held a public look-see. Features included a cat door that lets chip-carrying pets in and keeps predators out. Of course, the cost of any home on West Vancouver’s Radcliffe Avenue would keep most humans out, too.

MIAOW NOW: Knowing of a West Van neighbour’s pet door, late photographer Rolly Ford’s cat would enter in the wee hours and provoke fights among many others sleeping on the homeowners’ bed. Long before the subsequent tirade of telephoned abuse ended, Ford’s feline agent provocateur would be snoozing innocently on its family-room cushion.

Backed by an image of the Beatles' Abbey Road, Andrea Wright and John Nightingale fronted the Night at The Aquarium gala-banquet.

Backed by an image of the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Andrea Wright and John Nightingale fronted the Night at The Aquarium gala-banquet.

The late Bill Reid's Killer Whale sculpture overlooked Amber Pardy and Gen Medrano as they entered the Night at The Aquarium gala.

The late Bill Reid’s Killer Whale sculpture overlooked Amber Pardy and Gen Medrano as they entered the Night at The Aquarium gala.

HEADS UP: Vancouver Aquarium development director Andrea Wright said the recent Night at The Aquarium gala raised $353,000. That will aid conservation programs, direct action, research and education. Wright and aquarium CEO John Nightingale were photographed beside an image of Abbey Road from the Beatles album that included now-Sir Ringo Starr’s gala-appropriate Octopus’s Garden. The event’s octopus-free menu included sable fish, halibut, ahi, spot prawns, scallops and a dry-land finale of beef short ribs. Diners also saw Douglas Coupland’s Vortex exhibition of ocean-retrieved plastic trash. The artist himself was at the Ottawa Art Gallery readying his National Portrait exhibition of 1,000 3D-printed heads of Canadian he’d scanned at sponsor Simons’ coast-to-coast stores.

Scott Garrett, Trevor Stokes and Brett Hoglund backed Bud Kanke at a barbecue-benefit for Streetfront Alternative Middle School.

Scott Garrett, Trevor Stokes and Brett Hoglund backed Bud Kanke at a barbecue-benefit for Streetfront Alternative Middle School.

MORE INVESTMENT: It was June, 2016 when Streetfront Alternative School teacher Trevor Stokes was asked what he needed most for students with variously problematic pasts. “Accepting that these kids are worth investing in,” he replied. Stokes himself so believed in them that, under his guidance, 50 had completed full or half marathons. Some had participated in Patagonia’s Street to Peak event or climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and three in four graduated from high school. “He just wants the best from all of us,” one student said. So do city firefighters. At a Sandbar-catered barbecue on the school’s Britannia campus, the Vancouver Firefighter Charities’ new Sports For Kids program dedicated $17,000 for 18 students to spend a week at Indigenous-immersion Hooksum Camp. The remote facility’s outdoors sports and cultural activities will see “kids open up to the grounding experience of nature … and return healthier in body and spirit,” program assistant director Dotty Kanke said.

At Women in Film + Television's Spotlight Awards ceremony, president Sarah Kalil feted Woman of The Year award winner Anita Adams.

At Women in Film + Television’s Spotlight Awards ceremony, president Sarah Kalil feted Woman of The Year award winner Anita Adams.

Director-novelist Michelle Kim and director-turned-producer Amber Ripley attended the Women in Film + Television awards event.

Director-novelist Michelle Kim and director-turned-producer Amber Ripley attended the Women in Film + Television awards event.

THE WORTHY DOZEN: Women in  Film + Television’s three-year president, Sarah Kalil, fronted the annual Spotlight Awards ceremony at Performance Works. Twelve awardees included the Teamsters 155 Woman of The Year Anita Adams. The First Weekend Club she heads has screened some 750 Canadian films since 2003. Technology lawyer Kalil was pleased that women directed 47 per cent of the National Film Board’s 2017-18 films and received 48 per cent of NFB funding. Switching media, Surrey-raised Michelle Kim wrote, produced, co-directed and starred in The Tree Inside before writing a teen-best-friends novel, Running Through Sprinklers (see Dana Gee’s Vancouver Sun review June 21). Regarding publisher Simon & Schuster, “I was surprised by the American interest for a very Canadian story,” Kim said. Her tip for others: “Don’t worry about anyone else and what they think. Write it for yourself, and be sure you love it.”

Loving Spoonful head Lisa Martella and founder Easter Armas attended the AIDS/HIV feeding agency's Project Empty Bowl fundraiser.

Loving Spoonful head Lisa Martella and founder Easter Armas attended the AIDS/HIV feeding agency’s Project Empty Bowl fundraiser.

FILLING THE BOWL: Loving Spoonful executive director Lisa Martella watched 350 Empty Bowl gala attendees reportedly generate $130,000 to support the agency’s AIDS/HIV home-meals program. Present was predecessor-founder Easter Armas, who now conducts the Young Rembrandt arts-education program at three schools. Fellow presenters “are fine-arts people,” Armas said, “but I’m a doodler.” Nobody would say that about her record at Loving Spoonful.

STILL AFLOAT: Dentist-cyclist Bruce Marshall has a family link to Richmond’s Lipont Place exhibition of ocean-liner Titanic’s artifacts and re-creations. That’s because, with mother Elizabeth helping row the lifeboat, Oregon-bound Bertha Watt, 12, survived the Titanic’s 1912 sinking. Nine years later, she married Vancouver dentist-yachtsman Leslie Marshall. Their son and fellow avid sailor Don succeeded him. Grandson Bruce, who prefers bikes to boats, heads the 95-year-old practice today.

Teena Sim joined her husband and Non-Partisan Association Vancouver mayoral candidate, Ken, at a rah-rah session in the Four Seasons hotel.

Teena Sim joined her husband and Non-Partisan Association Vancouver mayoral candidate, Ken, at a rah-rah session in the Four Seasons hotel.

HE SHOOTS: Addressing Non-Partisan Association members in the Four Seasons hotel, mayoral candidate Ken Sim recounted the 1994 Stanley Cup playoffs. After three straight losses to the Calgary Flames, the Canucks squeaked games 5 and 6 in overtime, then had Pavel Bure’s double-overtime goal win game 7. “I’m an optimist,” Sim said. “But we will lose this (2018) election if we are apathetic.” Likely alluding to internal NPA bickering: “We’re not going to win game 6 unless we win game 5.”

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: They say a pessimist is someone who once financed an optimist.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456


Town Talk: Blood cancer research on verge of making a difference

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BLOOD NEWS: Pioneer Pallet principal Dave Uppal and wife Jas hosted a reception for donors and supporters of the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s Inspiration gala. That Nov. 3 event will help fund blood-cancer research. B.C. Cancer’s Dr. Keith Humphries reminded attendees that acute leukemia treatments “have remained unchanged for over three decades (and) are all too often ineffective.” But with young scientists recruited, “We are seeking ways to harness the immune system and tell it to go after (cancer) carriers. … We are on the verge of a major paradigm shift in the treatment of blood cancers.”

IN THE BLOOD: Dave Uppal’s pioneering great-uncle Jack Uppal’s philanthropy and business and community leadership were commemorated in a South Vancouver street named for him.

At an Independence Day reception, U.S. consul-general Katherine Dhanani said: "What divides us is much less important and more transient than what unites us."

At an Independence Day reception, U.S. consul-general Katherine Dhanani said: “What divides us is much less important and more transient than what unites us.”

FOURTH OF JULY: Previous U.S. consuls general held Independence Day receptions at their Shaughnessy residence or aboard visiting American warships. This year, Katherine Dhanani opted for a fortunately dry field at the University of B.C. Farm where egg and dairy husbandry may be studied. She called the U. S-Canada relationship “our closest friendship and one all of us care deeply about protecting and strengthening … how we face shared challenges and how our future prosperity is interdependent.” Nevertheless, “we all know that at the moment there are policy issues on which we see things very differently. … I’m  confident that what divides us is much less important and more transient than what unites us.” Or unties us, the Fifty Shades of White House’s current occupant may wish.

Vancouver Police gang squad's Anisha Parhar and Sandy Avelar joined Wally Oppal at a Fourth of July reception at the UBC Farm.

Vancouver Police gang squad’s Anisha Parhar and Sandy Avelar joined Wally Oppal at a Fourth of July reception at the UBC Farm.

THEIR TIME: Wally Oppal, the former B.C. attorney General, former B.C. supreme court justice and former missing women commission of inquiry commissioner, found two women he admired at the U.S. consular reception. They were detectives Sandy Avelar and Anisha Parhar of the Vancouver Police Department’s gang crime unit. In December, they founded the Her Time (#HerTime) program where they and former gang-member girlfriends enlighten others on such relationships’ sometimes fatal risks.

Ocean Wise chef Ned Bell provided Dungeness crab tacos to British Pacific Properties president Geof Croll's latest project guests.

Ocean Wise chef Ned Bell provided Dungeness crab tacos to British Pacific Properties president Geof Croll’s latest project guests. Photo for the Mac Parry Town Talk column of Jul7 7, 208. Malcolm Parry/PNG [PNG Merlin Archive]

STOUT AND ABOUT: Wildlife abounds beside West Vancouver’s 1,620-hectare British Pacific Properties. Less than in 1931, though, when a Guinness-family syndicate acquired the land, built the Lions Gate Bridge and began developing. Still, pond-dwelling frogs croaked recently beside British Pacific’s current 39-condo Courtenay project where a 1,700-square-foot penthouse tops $7 million and a 700-square-foot unit wants $990,000. That’s the first six-figure property the company has offered in 20 years, president Geoff Croll said at an on-site reception.
A buck deer found lush landscaping much to his taste at British Pacific Properties' Courtenay condo project in higher West Vancouver.

A buck deer found lush landscaping much to his taste at British Pacific Properties’ Courtenay condo project in higher West Vancouver.

As he spoke, a velvet-antlered buck munched on lush greenery that Courtenay landscapers had thoughtfully provided. Croll’s human guests sampled Ocean Wise chef Ned Bell’s Dungeness crab tacos and albacore tuna tataki. Some bought his cookbook, Lure, based on Bell’s sustainable-seafood hope that “future generation enjoy the same fish and shellfish we do today.” Croll’s wish is that British Pacific’s next project, Cypress Village, will include an Irish pub serving — naturally — Guinness stout.

AU NATUREL: Elena Klein saw much wildlife on urban streets during seven years as a Coast Mountain Bus Company driver and 12 more years training others. Her interest in the city-nature relationship was sharpened by studying and practicing plant ecology and volunteering for Nature Vancouver. That organization’s Bev Ramey joined Klein in 2016 to pitch Museum of Vancouver on a “really small” exhibition covering a century of naturalist activity. “We don’t do that kind anymore,” Klein recalls being told. “How about 4,000 square feet?” That resulted in staff curator Viviane Gosselin and volunteer co-curators Klein, Ramey and Lee Beavington opening MOV’s now-to-September Wild Things: The Power of Nature In Our Lives. Thirteen naturalist-conducted sessions will include interactive studies of wild flowers on July 21, bats on July 28, and nightjar on birds Oct. 6

Co-curators Elena Klein and Lee Beavington bracketed Museum of Vancouver staff curator Viviane Gosselin for the Wild Things exhibition.

Co-curators Elena Klein and Lee Beavington bracketed Museum of Vancouver staff curator Viviane Gosselin for the Wild Things exhibition.

SIGN ON: Some neon signs in MOV’s Neon Vancouver / Ugly Vancouver gallery may go back where they came from. Nearby, anyway. Museum CEO Mauro Vescera has invited Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association members to install the glittering signs in their street-front windows. What a smart idea.

Lieutenant-Governor Janet Austin congratulated Latincouver founder Paola Murillo on Latin America Week and Carnaval del Sol events.

Lieutenant-Governor Janet Austin congratulated Latincouver founder Paola Murillo on Latin America Week and Carnaval del Sol events.

LATIN LOVER: Felicitaciones to Colombia-born Paola Murillo who founded 12-nation Latincouver in 2008 and continues as the cultural, social and business organization’s executive director. Its recent Latin American Week included a gala at Science World with performances by Costa Rica-raised violinist Marisol Valerio, Brazilian singer Mara Coelho and the city-based Lamondance and Kalakatu dance groups. Latincouver’s Carnaval del Sol (carnavaldelsol.ca) will run July 7 and 8 with constant entertainment, food, drink and a five-a-side soccer tournament.

Architect Bruno Freschi exhibited current and past works at the Italian Cultural Centre where he was also inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Architect Bruno Freschi exhibited current and past works at the Italian Cultural Centre where he was also inducted into its Hall of Fame.

THEY KNOW BRUNO: The Italian community has honoured Trail-born architect Bruno Freschi by inducting him into the Italian Cultural Centre’s Hall of Fame. The centre also opened a four-month exhibition, The Body Politick: The Art and Architecture of Bruno Freschi, featuring recent artworks and drawings made as chief architect for Expo 86. Freschi founded his own firm in 1970, seven years before the Grandview-at-Slocan cultural centre opened on a former landfill site.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: First-past-the-post voting would have seen President Hillary Clinton celebrate the Fourth of July this week.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Free rock concert raises $600,000 for YWCA

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HARD ACT TO FOLLOW: That was the free Malkin Bowl rock concert that Ryan and Cindy Beedie threw for 3,000 friends and colleagues in 2016. But lightning struck again recently when BrandLive producers Paul and Catherine Runnals staged the Bangles, Dear Rouge, Fitz & The Tantrums, Goo Goo Dolls and Loverboy at a seven-hour hoedown for Beedie guests. None went hungry or thirsty as chow lines, food trucks and name-your-poison bars kept the fare coming. VJ Monika Deol kept concert-goers informed, too, by interviewing performers while looking just so in her own-brand Stellar cosmetics that are carried in Sephora stores.

BrandLive production firm president Catherine Runnals and veejay-cosmetics maker Monika Deol were both busy at Rock'N The Park.

BrandLive production firm president Catherine Runnals and veejay-cosmetics maker Monika Deol were both busy at Rock’N The Park.

Cheeriest of all, the YWCA fund-development senior manager, Bobbi Sarai, watched attendees donate close to $200,000, which the Beedies then tripled. The $600,000 will help fund single-mother housing and augment seven such units that the Beedie Group has built in Coquitlam, Sarai said. Cheery, too, partiers unborn in 1980 sang along as Loverboy’s Mike Reno belted out a hit from that year, Turn Me Loose.

Cindy and Ryan Beedie flanked the YWCA's Bobbi Sarai when their Rock'N The Park concert generated $600,000 for single-mother housing.

Cindy and Ryan Beedie flanked the YWCA’s Bobbi Sarai when their Rock’N The Park concert generated $600,000 for single-mother housing.

Loverboy's Mike Reno belted out 1980's Turn Me Loose at Rock'N The Park albeit without donning his red-leather pants from that era.

Loverboy’s Mike Reno belted out 1980’s Turn Me Loose at Rock’N The Park albeit without donning his red-leather pants from that era.

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: Laura Byspalko and Sirish Rao launched the eighth annual Indian Summer Festival at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. Some events involve a prefabricated pavilion inherited from the Vancouver TED2017 conference and re-erected at Vanier Park. It houses  “a mini-festival with long-table dining and discussions, music, kite-making and fashion shows,” Rao said. Asserting that “you must be transported physically and intellectually in a festival,” he added that his and Byspalko’s 14-day version “is for the curious mind. The more it is fed, the more curious it gets.”

TIT-FOR-TAT: Liberals deeming Conservative leader Andrew Scheer “not ready” to be prime minister echo the Tories’ possibly still valid words regarding then-aspirant Justin Trudeau.

Native Egyptian Nihal Elwan founded Tayybeh that catered Syrian Hara'A Esbaou (Finger Burn stew) for Indian Summer Festival goers.

Native Egyptian Nihal Elwan founded Tayybeh that catered Syrian Hara’A Esbaou (Finger Burn stew) for Indian Summer Festival goers.

HOT ENOUGH: Chefs get used to burned fingers. Diners usually avoid them. But one Levantine fellow was allegedly so eager to start on a lentil, chard, cilantro, fava-bean, tamarind, radish, pomegranate and crispy flour-ball stew, it was named Hara’A Esbaou — Finger Burn. Served at the Indian Summer Festival launch by native Egyptian Nihal Elwan and a squad of Syrian home-style cooks, it reflected their catering organization’s name, Tayybeh, which is Arabic for “delicious.”

Bob and Barbara Stewart will be honoured at the Sept. 27 Gold Heart gala for Variety: The Children's Charity chaired by (front) Mary Zilba

Bob and Barbara Stewart will be honoured at the Sept. 27 Gold Heart gala for Variety: The Children’s Charity chaired by (front) Mary Zilba.

COPPER TURNS GOLD: Vancouver police officer Bob Stewart wrote many tickets before becoming chief constable in 1981. Now he’s received a citation himself. So has wife Barbara. Former chief barkers (board chairs) of Variety, The Children’s Charity, they’ll be honoured with Gold Heart awards at Variety’s annual gala on Sept. 27.

Playwright-actor Jenn Griffin saw lawyer Harvey Meller screen a video of his choreography at Dancing on The Edge's 1988 debut concert.

Playwright-actor Jenn Griffin saw lawyer Harvey Meller screen a video of his choreography at Dancing on The Edge’s 1988 debut concert.

BEST FEET FORWARD: Canada’s longest-running dance festival, Dancing on Edge, kicked off literally at the Firehall Arts Centre recently. Donna Spencer, who has been the Firehall’s artistic producer since 1980, essentially welcomed herself. That’s because she founded the dance festival in 1988. Many present and past participants contributed to or attended the Firehall event. One was choreographer Harvey Meller, whose Street of Dreams closed the festival’s first-ever concert. It was recalled in a video clip at the anniversary event. Now a corporate-commercial lawyer, Meller said he “used to hang out with the early punk rockers,” including D.O.A. founder-leader Joe Keithley. After making other bids for elected office, Keithley is the Green party’s nominee for hometown Burnaby’s mayor.  Maybe his campaign song should be You Need An Ass Kickin’ Right Now from D.O.A.’s recent Fight Back album.

Dancing on The Edge board chair Andrea Rabinovitch and choreographer Josh Martin served the festival's 30th-birthday cake.

Dancing on The Edge board chair Andrea Rabinovitch and choreographer Josh Martin served the festival’s 30th-birthday cake.

Less truculently, the Firehall party saw festival board chair Andrea Rabinovitch and Company 605 co-artistic director Josh Martin nervously support a 30th-birthday cake dancing on the edge of a narrow counter.

 

Candidate Ian Campbell said a successor to Vancouver mayors Tom, Larry and Gordon Campbell is needed "for productivity and morale."

Candidate Ian Campbell said a successor to Vancouver mayors Tom, Larry and Gordon Campbell is needed “for productivity and morale.”

IN A NAME: Visiting the Indian Summer Festival launch. Squamish Nation hereditary chief Ian Campbell made an odd, if informal, pitch for his Vancouver mayoral election bid. “The city needs another Campbell for productivity and morale,” he said, without enlarging on how those characteristics were manifested by hippie-harrying developer Tom (Terrific) Campbell in 1966-1972, chief coroner-turned-senator Larry in 2002-2005, and developer-turned-premier Gordon in 1986-1993.

B.C. Lions Jarious Jackson and Geroy Sim attended president/CEO Bob Ackles' 2008 memorial after the team beat Winnipeg 42-24 a day earlier.

B.C. Lions Jarious Jackson and Geroy Sim attended president/CEO Bob Ackles’ 2008 memorial after the team beat Winnipeg 42-24 a day earlier.

TEN YEARS AGO: On July 12, 2008, then mayor Sam Sullivan, predecessors Gordon and Larry Campbell, B.C. Lions football team owner David Braley, head coach Wally Buono and many others commemorated Lions president/CEO Bob Ackles who had died on July 6. Team members attending the memorial had overcome the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 42-24 in Winnipeg the day before. Quarterback Jarious Jackson threw five touchdown passes in that game, one for a 76-yard run in by slotback Geroy Simon. One week later, a home-game tribute to Ackles saw the Leos beat the Bombers again, 27-18.

IN YOUR EYE: Even today, advertisements claim that carrots enhanced Second World War night-fighter pilots’ vision. That British-government canard was concocted to mask the development of airborne radar. Technically advanced German aviators laughed off the deception, but British parents promptly began serving their offspring ineffectual carrots.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Don’t lose your head July 14, the 229th anniversary of the storming of Paris’s Bastille prison that precipitated the French Revolution and put the guillotine to work.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca

604-929-8456

Town Talk: Ballet B.C. on its toes for another strong season

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FEET FORWARD: Ballet dancers need only a split second to turn on a dime. Not so professional dance companies that can land flat on their tutus when funding dries up. That happened to then-23-year-old Ballet B.C. in 2009, when everyone was laid off. Former Ballet B.C., National Ballet of Canada and Frankfurt Ballet dancer Emily Molnar stepped in as artistic director to pick up the pieces. Fast forwarding, 2017-2018 has been “ a transformative year,” board chair Kevin Leslie said during a penthouse-patio reception at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Breaking sales records, a May staging of Romeo and Juliet had to run an extra night. A three-week European tour got standing applauses from sold-out audiences at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. And executive director John Clark reported record fundraising: $840,000. Dancers are rehearsing for November’s Canadian premiere of William Forsythe’s Enemy In The Figure followed by December and January tours to Spain, Luxembourg, Germany and Israel. Not quite on a dime, then, but a turnaround nonetheless.

Dani Le Rose sang The Tide and executive chef Wayne Sych toted a Seafood Tower dish at Joe Fortes restaurant's summertime patio opening.

Dani Le Rose sang The Tide and executive chef Wayne Sych toted a Seafood Tower dish at Joe Fortes restaurant’s summertime patio opening.

FUN ON TOP: Sunshine flooded Joe Fortes restaurant’s rooftop patio when general manager Chris Meyer and executive chef Wayne Sych officially opened it for summer. There would be more al fresco space atop the Thurlow-off-Robson joint had City Hall accepted founder Bud Kanke’s several bids to seat customers there. Sych served opening-night guests the lobster-oyster-clam-mussel-scallop-tuna-prawn Seafood Tower that normally goes for $77.95 a tier. Singer-guitarist Dani le Rose’s accompanied it with The Tide which she’ll release at month’s end. Equally fitting, her I’ve Told Lies song echoed earlier Joe Fortes clients’ words to fellow bar patrons they planned to awaken with the following morning.

Jessica Knura's headgear umbrella echoes the medical one Baba Sylla's Orange Babies organization provides for HIV-vulnerable newborns.

Jessica Knura’s headgear umbrella echoes the medical one Baba Sylla’s Orange Babies organization provides for HIV-vulnerable newborns.

AIDING BABIES: “For 100 euros ($154), you can save a baby,” Baba Sylla claims. At a Vancouver Club reception staged by impresario Vernard Goud, Senegal-born Amsterdam resident Sylla recalled 1999. That’s when he and two others founded Orange Babies South Africa to combat natal HIV transmission in that country, Namibia and Zambia. “The biggest problem is that people are HIV-positive, but they don’t know it,” Sylla said. When identified in hard-to-reach remote villages, “We give them medication, and in eight weeks, they can’t infect anyone else.” Increasing Orange Babies’ pair of three-staff mobile units to 10 would be a boon. But they cost 100,000 euros ($154,000) each and a further 30,000 euros ($46,000) annually. “It is very possible to end HIV, but it needs a strong will,” said Sylla, who doubtless hopes for that from the 22nd annual International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam July 23-27.

Bard on The Beach's Claire Sakaki welcomed guests to the Jessie Awards celebration that Rumble Theatre's Christie Watson produced.

Bard on The Beach’s Claire Sakaki welcomed guests to the Jessie Awards celebration that Rumble Theatre’s Christie Watson produced.

MUCH ADO: Executive director Claire Sakaki welcomed many Vancouver stage actors to Bard on The Beach’s tent this week. Not to perform, but to applaud colleagues and companies accepting Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. The Arts Club Theatre Company scored seven, including large-theatre male and female winners, Andrew McNee and Lucia Frangione, for the same show, Misery. Ingenue actor Tai Amy Grauman and director Genevieve Fleming received most-promising awards.

Seen as Marilyn Monroe in an earlier production, Lucia Frangione took a best-actress Jessie award for her role in the Arts Club Theatre's Misery.

Seen as Marilyn Monroe in an earlier production, Lucia Frangione took a best-actress Jessie award for her role in the Arts Club Theatre’s Misery.

Tracey Bell, who performed at Celebrities nightclub recently, still impersonates Tina Turner while looking just as she did here 22 years ago.

Tracey Bell, who performed at Celebrities nightclub recently, still impersonates Tina Turner while looking just as she did here 22 years ago.

BELL KEEPS RINGING: Tracey Bell wrung out a performance at Celebrities nightclub concert recently by impersonating such long-deceased entertainers as Michael Jackson, Janis Joplin and Marilyn Monroe. Her quick-change act also portrayed Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Dolly Parton and others and, as Bell often does, benefited A Loving Spoonful. She is an honorary director of that HIV/AIDS home-meals agency. In a feat as remarkable as her act, Bell personally looks pretty much as she did while impersonating Tina Turner 22 years ago.

POT LUCKY: Government could spend a fraction of their marijuana windfalls on a Greyhound replacement called Canabus.

Moscow-born Natalia Lebedinskaia succeeded Ammar Mahimwala to head Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale projects and programs.

Moscow-born Natalia Lebedinskaia succeeded Ammar Mahimwala to head Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale projects and programs.

FREE ART: The Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale has named Moscow-born Natalia Lebedinskaia its director of public projects and programs. Founded and headed by Barrie Mowatt without taxpayer funding, the Biennale installs spectacular pieces of public art.

A photo from Yue Minjun's A-maze-ing Laughter overlooks Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale founder-head Barrie Mowatt.

A photo from Yue Minjun’s A-maze-ing Laughter overlooks Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale founder-head Barrie Mowatt.

Some that stayed here include Yue Minjun’s A-maze-ing Laughter at English Bay’s Morton Park for which Chip and Shannon Wilson donated $1.5 million. On her first working day, Lebedinskaia opened Chilean Alfredo Jaar’s 1987 electronic billboard This Is Not America as part of the 2018-2020 Biennale’s reIMAGE-n program. Due soon are works by Yoko Ono, who will also be cited as an artist of distinction.

Construction-development firm principal Robin Dhir married CGA/CPA Rena Chatha at Vishva Hindu Parishad Temple on July 25, 1998.

Construction-development firm principal Robin Dhir married CGA/CPA Rena Chatha at Vishva Hindu Parishad Temple on July 25, 1998.

TWENTY YEARS AGO: 500 guests witnessed Hindu Robin Dhir and Sikh Rena Chatha’s July 25, 1998 wedding at North Burnaby’s Vishva Hindu Parishad Temple. Traditional trappings included the bride’s gold-embroidered silk lehenga (gown) and gifted currency bills pinned to the groom’s knee-length achkan jacket. Reflecting the construction-and-development Dhir family’s political affiliations, the ten-spots featured founding Tory prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald looking out soberly. That wedding-day wad was peanuts beside the charitable sums the subsequent parents-of-three helped realize later. They included $4.7 million that the South Asian community’s Night of Miracles gala raised for B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation during founding chair Robin’s eight-year incumbency.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Maybe Tweeter The Great “misspoke” his marriage vows, too.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Deighton Cup featured flirty hats and sharp minds beneath

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CUP AND SORCERY: Deighton Cup founders Dax Droski, Jordan Kallman and Tyson Villeneuve’s inexplicable mastery of the weather had record crowds pack Hastings Racecourse as the event’s 10th-annual aided Variety: The Children’s Charity. Despite less cigar smoking this year, attendees still dressed to the high eights. Men in snappy jackets and fedoras accompanied women wearing sky-high heels, girly-girl frocks and filmy fascinators. Pure pantomime, of course, especially for Nisha Khare who had worn a hard hat and steel-toed boots for a summer job driving a forklift in hometown Prince George. That helped pay for two UBC undergrad degrees and a masters in counselling psychology. Later she addressed a United Nations audience on the theme of Powerful Partnerships. Her career focus: “(Guiding) people who elevate one another in life and business.” At the Deighton Cup, Khare lowered herself into a McLaren 675LT Spider for which David Bentil, the Mile’s End Motors dealer and hospitality pavilion host, wanted $400,000. That, the open-top supercar’s wind blast and the real-life accomplishments of Khare and other women present would blow the flirty chapeau of anybody’s noggin.

Deighton Cup co-founders Jordan Kallman and Tyson Villeneuve backed Arturo Fermill, aka Buddha Sax, at the event's 10th-annual running.

Deighton Cup co-founders Jordan Kallman and Tyson Villeneuve backed Arturo Fermill, aka Buddha Sax, at the event’s 10th-annual running.

Setting her own Deighton Sup ensemble aside, Jeevitha Kandasamy designed and created jacket, shirt and pants for Julian Bell.

Setting her own Deighton Sup ensemble aside, Jeevitha Kandasamy designed and created jacket, shirt and pants for Julian Bell.

TO THE NINES: Some Deighton Cup attendees spent much time readying their own ensembles. Not so Jeevitha Kandasamy, who is a professional clothier with the Tom James menswear company. Her efforts were focused on boyfriend Julian Bell, the custom motorcycles and car designer, for whom she created an entire outfit of jacket, trousers, shirt and pocket square. The ensemble was likely approved by Julian’s mother, Liz Bell, the city-based fashion-model agent and former international model.

West Vancouver mayor Michael Smith cut the ribbon on co-developer Michael Geller's four-residence.

West Vancouver mayor Michael Smith cut the ribbon on co-developer Michael Geller’s four-residence.

BORN AGAIN: “This is the future of West Vancouver,” Mayor Michael Smith said at a ribbon-cutting for the three-building Vinson House Cottages project at Gordon off 15th Street. No word on his own future as Smith hasn’t announced he’ll seek a third term. Built in 1903 for Smith’s political predecessor, Reeve Valient Vivian Vinson, the house was moved back 10 metres on its lot and renovated to become two residences. New 2,600- and 2,400-square-foot “cottages” were built alongside. Architect-developer Michael Geller and construction-development firm partners Rob Chetner, Bob Dagg and Paolo Trasolini undertook the $7-million strata development. Common in Vancouver since a 1980s bylaw permitted them, “laneway” residences are new to West Van. Geller will soon complete another such project involving a 1923 home at 12th and Jefferson.

Marie Khouri, who now produces very large metal sculptures, began a decade ago with ones seldom bigger than would encircle her wrist.

Marie Khouri, who now produces very large metal sculptures, began a decade ago with ones seldom bigger than would encircle her wrist.

Marie Khouri and Charlotte Wall unveiled their Eyes On The Street twin stainless-steel sculptures at Concert Properties' Voda project.

Marie Khouri and Charlotte Wall unveiled their Eyes On The Street twin stainless-steel sculptures at Concert Properties’ Voda project.

EYES OPEN: When Marie Khouri began sculpting metal a decade ago, the pieces would just circle her wrist. Now they stand six metres or more high. That’s the case with a $400,000 dual work called Eyes On The Street that Khouri and collaborating sculptor Charlotte Wall unveiled at Concert Properties’ False Creek Voda project recently. The twin stainless-steel artworks stand in an ornamental pool (voda means “water” in some Eastern European languages). Such a location would have dissolved a sculpture of cattle salt-lick blocks that Wall exhibited in 2004. Having made several concrete public-art pieces, Khouri now favours metal for her and Wall’s large works. Their powder-coated steel triple-sculpture titled Let’s Roll now stands in Richmond. Another named Air will debut in North Vancouver District on Sept. 15.

Deighton Cup attendees Aisha Damji and McKenzie Neal flanked jockey Aaron Gryder who rode filly Under Par to win the day's first-race.

Deighton Cup attendees Aisha Damji and McKenzie Neal flanked jockey Aaron Gryder who rode filly Under Par to win the day’s first-race.

POST PERFECT: Occupants of the Deighton Cup’s trackside hospitality boxes were pleased when jockey Aaron Gryder strolled in to say hello. Those who had bet on Under Par in the day’s first event, a $14,000-purse claiming race for three-year-olds and upward, were happier still. That’s because Gryder had ridden that filly to a win paying $3.80.

Remembering a cheating companion and forgetting her earlier book's gunplay, Jill Sinclair checked out 47 other men for Date Did What?

Remembering a cheating companion and forgetting her earlier book’s gunplay, Jill Sinclair checked out 47 other men for Date Did What?

MEN OVERBOARD: Jill Sinclair, who watched races from a Deighton Cup private box, has made many bets lately. Not on the gee-gees, though. Her winners and mostly losers were the 47 variously eligible men aged over 30 she sized up during research for her latest book, Date Did What? Some encounters must have been perfunctory as Sinclair admits to seven in one day. An earlier opus recounted pirates firing bullets into an anchored yacht where she slumbered while raising funds to build huts for Malaysia’s homeless. The cruising and book-writing began after Sinclair was laid off from a hospital job and returned home early to discover her male companion and another woman in a Mate Did What? situation.

Returning from a Cabo San Lucas sojourn, BMW dealer Brian Jessel had partner Jim Murray present a rare and valuable 2003 Z8 roadster.

Returning from a Cabo San Lucas sojourn, BMW dealer Brian Jessel had partner Jim Murray present a rare and valuable 2003 Z8 roadster.

ZED TIME: Greeting BMW auto dealer Brian Jessel from a sojourn in Cabo San Lucas, business partner Jim Murray gave him a 2003 used car. But not some clapped-out beater he’d taken in trade. It was a silver BMW Z8 with near-unbelievable 7,000 km total mileage. One of a 2000-2003 series of 5,703, the roadster is likely worth twice its original US$129,000 price. Jessel had long tried to uncork a Z8 from Mission Hill winery mogul Anthony von Mandl who has owned it since new. Having sleuthed one out in Toronto, Murray snapped it up and, for Jessel, wrapped it up.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: The term “Band-Aid solution” seems hardly fair for a 98-year-old Johnson & Johnson product that solves scrapes reliably and thoroughly.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Town Talk: Pacific Polo Cup play returns to Southlands

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LUCKY CHUKKAS: Southlands Riding Club was the beneficiary when the fifth annual Pacific Polo Cup tournament ran on its compact field recently. Originated by then-club-vice-president Kimberley St. Pierre, it was staged again by Nadia Iadisernia and Craig Stowe’s Luxury Alliance Group and presented by Nicola Wealth Management. Many attendees watched from marquees costing $8,250 for 30 or $2,750 for 10.

Pacific Polo Cup founder Kimberley St. Pierre and Southlands Riding Club president Whitney Santos shared champagne and plans.

Pacific Polo Cup founder Kimberley St. Pierre and Southlands Riding Club president Whitney Santos shared champagne and plans.

Club president Whitney Santos said the revenue will help renovate an indoor arena, provide new show-season jumps and support on-field classes. Paralegal Santos is an active rider whose 20-year-old Tango’s dun colour “matches my hair, but he has less grey.” Paul Sullivan’s four-rider Amacon team edged Nicola Wealth Management’s 7-5 to win the cup. For play on a full-sized field, Sullivan and others’ Vancouver Polo Club will host “big player” games at 3948 88th St. in Delta on Aug. 11-12. Easier on the billfold, too, at $10 a carload for a field-side day of sport and tailgate picnicking.

Helen Gardom, Patrick Oswald and the late Jean Southam enjoyed a 1997 competition from a Southlands Riding Club field-side marquee.

Helen Gardom, Patrick Oswald and the late Jean Southam enjoyed a 1997 competition from a Southlands Riding Club field-side marquee.

The hams Antonio Romero Casado served at to Pacific Polo Cup came from free-range Spanish animals that eat acorns for four months yearly.

The hams Antonio Romero Casado served at to Pacific Polo Cup came from free-range Spanish animals that eat acorns for four months yearly.

ACORNS ’R’ US: Pacific Polo Cup pavilion occupants had more than horseflesh to appreciate. It was Spanish ham sliced from the bone by the Iberico Imports owner, Antonio Romero  Casado. Animals that free-range on Iberian Peninsula eat only acorns during the October-February montanera season, Casado said. After layering in sea salt from the nearby Mediterranean, the resultant hams are cellared for up to 42 time-well-spent months.

Nicola Wealth Management's David Sung, wife Tassan, partner Phil Tippetts-Aylmer and wife Lee were third-time Pacific Polo Cup sponsors.

Nicola Wealth Management’s David Sung, wife Tassan, partner Phil Tippetts-Aylmer and wife Lee were third-time Pacific Polo Cup sponsors.

EARLIER DAYS: As familiar as the gee-gees at Southlands Riding Club is member-benefactor Patrick Oswald, who played polo there 60 years ago and for Canada in the 1970s. He also raised money for Southlands’ Riding for the Disabled children’s program. As for disabled adults, Oswald recalled a polo game when Capt. Basil (Nip) Parker was unhorsed. The former Seaforth Highlander, who had lost a leg in Second World War fighting, horrified onlookers when his pony cantered away with his prosthesis and boot still wired to a stirrup.  At a 1993 meet, Oswald’s disabled-riding colleague Betsy Bilodeau recalled being flung from her mallet-tripped pony “and going through the goal without it.” Four years later, former concert violinist Amy Dundas described how she’d cured thoroughbred Benjie of rearing. “Up she’d go,” Dundas said. “But when I cracked an egg on her head, she thought she’d hit something and her head was bleeding.” Benjie promptly calmed down. Such therapy might work on humans, too.

With a renovation long behind them, Reuben Major and Steve Thorp dressed Cuban-style for a reception at the Commercial Drive joint.

With a renovation long behind them, Reuben Major and Steve Thorp dressed Cuban-style for a reception at the Commercial Drive joint.

NACIDO DE NUEVO: Reuben Major and Steve Thorp dressed Cuban-style for the “official opening” of the Havana restaurant they renovated this spring. Mike Abbott, Ken Conker, Corinne Lea and Simon Sobolewski founded the Commercial Drive fixture in 1996. Lea, was ecstatic this week when city hall committed $375,000 to help purchase the development-threatened Broadway-off-Commercial Rio theatre she manages.

Early childhood educator and 15-year Havana patron Lule Abbay and son Solomon Campbell-Abbay took in the restaurant's official re-opening.

Early childhood educator and 15-year Havana patron Lule Abbay and son Solomon Campbell-Abbay took in the restaurant’s official re-opening.

Back at Havana, early childhood educator and 15-year patron Lule Abbay approved the $10 vegetarian flatbread — a change from her traditional chorizo hash — then discreetly fed 10-month-old son Solomon Campbell-Abbay from her personal, if unchanging, menu. Restaurant staff may get to see the real Havana, Thorp said. “We’re going to set a sales goal and, if they meet it, there’ll be a trip to Cuba.” Asked if that goal would be aggressive, Thorp said: “It’s going to have to be.” Returning from 1990s Cuba, where doctors earned $15 a month and tourist-tipped tax drivers maybe $75 a night, co-founder Sobolewski relayed a joke he’d heard there.

Adult to child: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Child: “A tourist.

Instant Theatre company members Brent Hirose and Ese Atawo readied for Friday-to-Sunday shows in Havana restaurant's revamped theatre.

Instant Theatre company members Brent Hirose and Ese Atawo readied for Friday-to-Sunday shows in Havana restaurant’s revamped theatre.

THE TIME OF NICK: Six blocks north of Havana, another dining institution has been revamped after 62 years. Renamed, too. Nick Felicella’s Nick’s Spaghetti House is now Pepino’s Spaghetti House as upscaled by Paul Grunberg, Mark Perrier and Craig Stanghetta. Grunberg gave Gastown dining a shake in 2010 when he and chef Lee Cooper opened L’Abattoir on a site where 19th-century butchers reportedly operated. By 2015, the two and Stanghetta had launched Osteria Savio Volpe on Kingsway at Fraser. Now they’ve trooped northeastward to assume and rework Nick’s.

Kazuko Komatsu died recently after owning Pacific Western Brewing for 25 years and quaffing possibly less than a pint of its output.

Kazuko Komatsu died recently after owning Pacific Western Brewing for 25 years and quaffing possibly less than a pint of its output.

RIP: Raise a glass of Pacific Western Brewing beer to Kazuko Komatsu, who succumbed to cancer on July 27. Born and raised in Japan, she owned the Prince George-based brewery for 25 years while likely quaffing less than a pint of its products. She didn’t play rugby, either, but introduced Scrum Dark, Dropkick Pale Ale and Lineout Lager, and sponsored the B.C. Rugby Union with $20,000. She supported other athletes and teams with $2,000 Hometown Heroes bursaries funded by Cariboo Genuine Draft sales. She also launched the male-female “natural sexual enhancer” Veromax, and a similar ginseng-based product named Pro-Active. The latter, she said, “is good for brain, for heart and not just” — fluttering her hands — “ha-ha-ha.”  So, here’s to someone whose products helped folk get a glow on and … uh, something else on, too.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Surely it’s time to return icons to where they belong, on a church wall, and to bury the words “iconic” and “amazing” in the graveyard outside.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

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